Until today, it has been almost 17 months since I stepped into a Goodlife BodyStep class. The last class I attended was when I suspected I was pregnant with darling daughter. I have been hestiant to participate in a step aerobics class since I gave birth due to the fact I dislocated my knee cap when I was about seven weeks pregnant. But for whatever reason today was the day I decided to reintroduce myself to BodyStep.
Before I ever got pregnant with darling daughter, I had schedules of several Goodlife locations throughout the city in a drawer in my desk at work. If I happened to get off early, I'd peruse the schedules to see if there was a BodyStep class I could attend. It wouldn't be unusual for me to attend up to five classes a week. What can I say? I was addicted.
So once dear husband came home tonight, I was out of the house like a shot. I shouted out some instructions to him in regards what to feed darling daughter dinner before jumping into the car. The adrenaline was running through my body as I drove through heavy traffic to Goodlife. Would I make the class? Would I remember the choreography? Would I lose my nerve and jump on an exercise bike instead?
I breezed into the gym, quickly scanned my membership card, jammed my belongings into a locker, walked briskly into the studio and set up my step at the front of the class. Soon, the music was pumping and I found myself stepping up a storm. I was tapping, turning, squatting, straddling and flying across the top of the step. By the seventh track, I was drenched in sweat, but I wanted more. Much more. Oh, I forgot how addictive BodyStep is. By the tenth track, I was ready for the third and last cardio peak. Over the top, toe tapping and squatting I was working through five minutes and five seconds of pure aerobic hell. But I got through it and felt fantastic. I had a huge smile on my face when I left class. Yes, this momma has got her BodyStep groove back. And now I have rediscovered my BodyStep addiction. Oh BodyStep, how I missed you so.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Costco, you are making me rethink my membership . . .
In these hard economic times, you would think retailers would be trying to lure consumers into their stores with cheaper prices, not discourage them with price increases. However, Costco has quietly raised some of its prices on some of its baby products, namely Pekkle sleepers. I love Pekkle sleepers. Not only are they cute, good quality sleepers, they once were cheap as in $7.49 cheap. I couldn't believe my eyes when dear husband and I stumbled upon them a couple of months before darling daughter was born. We bought more sleepers after she grew out of her size six month sleepers.
When I heard that Costco was having a sale on sleepers, I was excited. The possiblity of buying sleepers around $5 was very appealing. So after darling daughter was down for the night, I headed out to visit the big box giant.
However, my excitement of getting sleepers around $5 each was short lived as Costco has jacked the price of Pekkle sleepers to $9.49. That is a $2 difference. With the $1.50 coupon, the sleepers were 50 cents more than when I first started purchasing them. Plus, I could only get three sleepers with my coupon. I'm not impressed.
So if Costco is jacking up the prices on sleepers, what else have they raised the price on? I'm really rethinking about not renewing my membership in June. If I can get sleepers cheaper at Wal-Mart, why would I want to go to Costco. Sorry Costco, you get a big thumbs down. Other mothers are on to your price raising ways. So if I'm thinking of not renewing my membership, I'm sure others are thinking the same thing.
When I heard that Costco was having a sale on sleepers, I was excited. The possiblity of buying sleepers around $5 was very appealing. So after darling daughter was down for the night, I headed out to visit the big box giant.
However, my excitement of getting sleepers around $5 each was short lived as Costco has jacked the price of Pekkle sleepers to $9.49. That is a $2 difference. With the $1.50 coupon, the sleepers were 50 cents more than when I first started purchasing them. Plus, I could only get three sleepers with my coupon. I'm not impressed.
So if Costco is jacking up the prices on sleepers, what else have they raised the price on? I'm really rethinking about not renewing my membership in June. If I can get sleepers cheaper at Wal-Mart, why would I want to go to Costco. Sorry Costco, you get a big thumbs down. Other mothers are on to your price raising ways. So if I'm thinking of not renewing my membership, I'm sure others are thinking the same thing.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
I make baby food, part two
After attending a playdate on Friday where some of my mommy friends were talking about how they don't make their own baby food, I started to rethink my stance on homemade baby food. Is making your own baby food that cheaper from buying it in a jar?
Good question. So I decided to investigate.
I went to Farm Boy and bought four butternut squashes for a grand total of $6.66. Roughly, a jar of baby food is about 70 cents. I don't know about you, but I don't recall what jarred squash tastes like. It has been some time since I was a baby. According to one of my mom friends, it tastes horrible. I have no doubt that this fact is true as I have tasted jarred green beans and they are bland. No wonder darling daughter wasn't too crazy for them a couple of weeks ago.
After lunch, I decided to proceed with my experiment. I cooked up the butternut squash, which took a good hour. I let it cool before scooping the squash into a bowl. I got out the hand mixer in an attempt to get rid of the strings. Afterwards, I threw it in blender and added some water. I hit the puree button and waited for the blender to do its magic. I must of had too much squash in the blender because it wouldn't blend at all. I took half the squash out and tried it again. Success! (Honestly, I don't think making homemade butternut squash purees has to be all that complicated, but I'm anal when it comes to purees). This process took a good 30 to 40 minutes, at which time my dear husband got grumpy because I had overtaken the entire kitchen and he couldn't make a sandwich for lunch.
I ended up with about with the equivalent of eight, four ounce jars. And if my math is correct, it works out to be 83 cents per four ounce jar for my homemade squash puree. So there is a 13 cent difference between my homemade puree and the commercial purees available at the grocery store. My math doesn't take into account the electricity costs used to cook the squash and to power both my hand mixer and blender. And it certainly doesn't take into account my husband's grumpiness after he realized that making a sandwich would have to wait.
According to Ruth Yaron's Super Baby Food, making your own baby food, and I quote, is like "making money at home." She uses carrots as an example. Now, maybe I'm not being fair as I used butternut squash as the subject of my experiment, which isn't all that cheap. Carrots I can see fits into her "making money at home" philosophy. Anyway, I intend to continue with my experiment. I have apples, mangoes (they were on sale) and pears to make in the coming days.
Good question. So I decided to investigate.
I went to Farm Boy and bought four butternut squashes for a grand total of $6.66. Roughly, a jar of baby food is about 70 cents. I don't know about you, but I don't recall what jarred squash tastes like. It has been some time since I was a baby. According to one of my mom friends, it tastes horrible. I have no doubt that this fact is true as I have tasted jarred green beans and they are bland. No wonder darling daughter wasn't too crazy for them a couple of weeks ago.
After lunch, I decided to proceed with my experiment. I cooked up the butternut squash, which took a good hour. I let it cool before scooping the squash into a bowl. I got out the hand mixer in an attempt to get rid of the strings. Afterwards, I threw it in blender and added some water. I hit the puree button and waited for the blender to do its magic. I must of had too much squash in the blender because it wouldn't blend at all. I took half the squash out and tried it again. Success! (Honestly, I don't think making homemade butternut squash purees has to be all that complicated, but I'm anal when it comes to purees). This process took a good 30 to 40 minutes, at which time my dear husband got grumpy because I had overtaken the entire kitchen and he couldn't make a sandwich for lunch.
I ended up with about with the equivalent of eight, four ounce jars. And if my math is correct, it works out to be 83 cents per four ounce jar for my homemade squash puree. So there is a 13 cent difference between my homemade puree and the commercial purees available at the grocery store. My math doesn't take into account the electricity costs used to cook the squash and to power both my hand mixer and blender. And it certainly doesn't take into account my husband's grumpiness after he realized that making a sandwich would have to wait.
According to Ruth Yaron's Super Baby Food, making your own baby food, and I quote, is like "making money at home." She uses carrots as an example. Now, maybe I'm not being fair as I used butternut squash as the subject of my experiment, which isn't all that cheap. Carrots I can see fits into her "making money at home" philosophy. Anyway, I intend to continue with my experiment. I have apples, mangoes (they were on sale) and pears to make in the coming days.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Can't have poopie discussions with childless friends, which is a very good thing
I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of my friend. I'm not too sure when she will show up, hopefully soon. I haven't seen her in months. Unless you consider her job a child (her job takes up a lot of her time) she has no children.
Obviously, your life changes when you have children. Your child literally consumes your life. Therefore, old friendships, sadly, go by the wayside. You don't mean for it to happen, it just can't be helped. Sure, you can keep in contact through facebook and MSN messenger, but it isn't the same. Life is busy and that phone call that you have been meaning to make to a friend or two, just never gets made.
Anyhoo, I think I may have guilted my friend in coming to visit us. But no matter, I'm excited I'm getting a visit from someone who is childless. In my new found world of motherhood, spending time with other moms and their babies can be incredibly stressful. Somedays it is like walking through a mine field as I always find myself comparing my kid to others and watching what I say in case I offend someone with my comments, especially when it comes to parenting. So when I get the opportunity to spend time with someone who is childless, I jump at the opportunity. There will be no talk of poop, breastfeeding, solids, naps or any of the other multitude of other topics that relate to babies. Yes, I almost become sane when I'm around people who are childless.
I hope my friend arrives soon. Other than dear husband and darling daughter, she'll likely be the only other person I get to talk to today.
Obviously, your life changes when you have children. Your child literally consumes your life. Therefore, old friendships, sadly, go by the wayside. You don't mean for it to happen, it just can't be helped. Sure, you can keep in contact through facebook and MSN messenger, but it isn't the same. Life is busy and that phone call that you have been meaning to make to a friend or two, just never gets made.
Anyhoo, I think I may have guilted my friend in coming to visit us. But no matter, I'm excited I'm getting a visit from someone who is childless. In my new found world of motherhood, spending time with other moms and their babies can be incredibly stressful. Somedays it is like walking through a mine field as I always find myself comparing my kid to others and watching what I say in case I offend someone with my comments, especially when it comes to parenting. So when I get the opportunity to spend time with someone who is childless, I jump at the opportunity. There will be no talk of poop, breastfeeding, solids, naps or any of the other multitude of other topics that relate to babies. Yes, I almost become sane when I'm around people who are childless.
I hope my friend arrives soon. Other than dear husband and darling daughter, she'll likely be the only other person I get to talk to today.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Take your judgemental attitude and shove it
Although I'm new to this motherhood thing, I have learned one thing: we all judge ourselves as mothers. For the most part, I am the both the judge and jury when it comes to the parenting decisions I have made for darling daughter. Am I feeding her too much? Am I feeding her enough? Is she getting enough breastmilk? Is she nursing too much? Is she sleeping enough at night? Should her morning nap be longer? And the list goes on and on . . . But what I don't need is other mothers judging me.
A couple of weeks ago, I felt like I was verbally attacked for my decision to stay at home with darling daughter once my maternity leave is up. I have been debating on becoming a stay at home mom since darling daughter was born. I won't get into the details as I am sick of feeling compelled to justify to other mothers the reasons of my decision. Even in this modern age of choice, not everyone is supportive of women staying at home to raise their children. I don't even like discussing the subject with other mothers, in fear of offending someone or having someone judge me.
Some women may not approve of my choice, but regardless I have to find good, quality child care for my child. And who else would be better than me -- darling daughter's own mother -- to provide it? Somedays I don't feel like I'm making the right choice and other days I think it is the best choice I could make for both my daughter and I.
So to all those mothers who like to judge others, take you judgement attitude elsewhere. I already have enough on my plate than to deal with you, thank you very much.
A couple of weeks ago, I felt like I was verbally attacked for my decision to stay at home with darling daughter once my maternity leave is up. I have been debating on becoming a stay at home mom since darling daughter was born. I won't get into the details as I am sick of feeling compelled to justify to other mothers the reasons of my decision. Even in this modern age of choice, not everyone is supportive of women staying at home to raise their children. I don't even like discussing the subject with other mothers, in fear of offending someone or having someone judge me.
Some women may not approve of my choice, but regardless I have to find good, quality child care for my child. And who else would be better than me -- darling daughter's own mother -- to provide it? Somedays I don't feel like I'm making the right choice and other days I think it is the best choice I could make for both my daughter and I.
So to all those mothers who like to judge others, take you judgement attitude elsewhere. I already have enough on my plate than to deal with you, thank you very much.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Telemarketers raining on my parade
Right at this moment the house is silent. Darling daughter has gone down for her morning nap. It was a struggle. There were tears and protests, but she reluntantly gave into sleep. I don't know why she fights it so, but she does. Anyway, I'm crossing my fingers that she will sleep for a good hour. It seems likely lately how her day unfold hinges on her morning nap.
The only thing that will disturb naptime is a ringing telephone. Other than my parents, dear husband's parents and the odd friend, no one of importance really calls us. However, telemarketers are a whole different story.
I'm not a fan of telemarketers. I don't think there are a lot of people who are. I understand times they have a job to do, but I'm not really interested in listening to the spiel. I find that I can go a month without receiving a phone call from a telemarketer, but then suddenly I'm bombarded with calls for weeks on end. Lately, they have been calling my cell phone.
In the day of BC (before child) it wasn't a problem. I just didn't answer the phone when I saw a strange phone number pop up on my phone's display panel. Now I don't have that luxury. It doesn't matter if the phone ring once, it will wake up that child, resulting in the immediate termination of naptime and me cursing under my breath. I don't know why it has taken me so long to decide to unplug the phone altogether. I guess it takes me a while to clue into useful solutions. So when darling daughter was showing signs of tiredness this morning after breakfast, I immediately unplugged the telephone cord. However, I hope to remember to plug the cord back into the telephone outlet after naptime because I may be wondering why no one, including telemarketers, aren't phoning us.
The only thing that will disturb naptime is a ringing telephone. Other than my parents, dear husband's parents and the odd friend, no one of importance really calls us. However, telemarketers are a whole different story.
I'm not a fan of telemarketers. I don't think there are a lot of people who are. I understand times they have a job to do, but I'm not really interested in listening to the spiel. I find that I can go a month without receiving a phone call from a telemarketer, but then suddenly I'm bombarded with calls for weeks on end. Lately, they have been calling my cell phone.
In the day of BC (before child) it wasn't a problem. I just didn't answer the phone when I saw a strange phone number pop up on my phone's display panel. Now I don't have that luxury. It doesn't matter if the phone ring once, it will wake up that child, resulting in the immediate termination of naptime and me cursing under my breath. I don't know why it has taken me so long to decide to unplug the phone altogether. I guess it takes me a while to clue into useful solutions. So when darling daughter was showing signs of tiredness this morning after breakfast, I immediately unplugged the telephone cord. However, I hope to remember to plug the cord back into the telephone outlet after naptime because I may be wondering why no one, including telemarketers, aren't phoning us.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
I will not wear lululemon in public (unless I am going to the gym)
Ever since having darling daughter, I have been literally living in my lululemon pants. I have certainly gotten my $97 worth. For those who don't know, lululemon is a (and I'm quoting here) "yoga-inspired athletic apparel company with over 100 locations" across the world. Luckily for me, Ottawa has two locations. If I die tomorrow, my husband can certainly feel free to bury me in my lululemon pants. He wouldn't even have to go searching for them because I would likely be wearing them.
Since they are so darn comfortable, I just can't help wearing them. I wear them around the house, when I go shopping and when I go to the gym. But recently, I have been feeling frumpy and my lululemon pants aren't helping my cause to un-frump myself. In a couple of minutes I will be leaving to go to a meeting. Earlier this morning, I was wondering if I could get away with wearing my lululemon pants to said meeting. Despite the fact I have no clothes (my closet is filled with a mismash of clothes that don't fit, not approperiate or just plain ugly), I found a pair of jeans and a half decent shirt. I guess I look okay, but I have been struggling through this postpartum clothes stage and even going out to dinner with friends can be difficult because of this odd clothes related self esteem issue I have been suffering from.
So I have made a pledge not to wear my lululemon pants in public, unless I'm going to the gym. While wearing them at home is okay, I won't wear them when hosting a playdate or another event. I know it will be hard to do since they are so darn comfortable, but it is one of the steps I have to take to un-frump myself. Wish me luck
Since they are so darn comfortable, I just can't help wearing them. I wear them around the house, when I go shopping and when I go to the gym. But recently, I have been feeling frumpy and my lululemon pants aren't helping my cause to un-frump myself. In a couple of minutes I will be leaving to go to a meeting. Earlier this morning, I was wondering if I could get away with wearing my lululemon pants to said meeting. Despite the fact I have no clothes (my closet is filled with a mismash of clothes that don't fit, not approperiate or just plain ugly), I found a pair of jeans and a half decent shirt. I guess I look okay, but I have been struggling through this postpartum clothes stage and even going out to dinner with friends can be difficult because of this odd clothes related self esteem issue I have been suffering from.
So I have made a pledge not to wear my lululemon pants in public, unless I'm going to the gym. While wearing them at home is okay, I won't wear them when hosting a playdate or another event. I know it will be hard to do since they are so darn comfortable, but it is one of the steps I have to take to un-frump myself. Wish me luck
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