Thrifty Thursday: Making The Most Of Sippy Cups

So my son goes through sippy cup lids like crazy. We use several types, but the ones he seems to lose or break are the take-n-toss ones. I hated throwing out all the cups we had accumulated when the cups were in great condition and just needed new lids.

I looked everywhere and couldn't buy just the lids until I went to the company Web site. The Learning Curve sells a 6-pack of the lids for $3.99. The shipping and handling is about $5, so we teamed up with a friend and bought several packs of lids at once. It was great though because we could still use our cups, not waste them, and spend the money on what we really needed, which was just the lids.

It was not the best deal in the world, but I feel so much better about not wastign perfectly good cups. Plus the cups are BPA-free, so I'm not worried about my kids using them.

Confession Time: My Hair

So I have never been too much into clothes, fashion, hair, makeup, etc. my whole life. Some of it is probably because I just wasn't that interested. Some of it was that I was so busy with sports and life and dealing with other (more important) problems to think about it. Still some of it was that I would try to do stuff, not really do a great job and then just get too busy to take time to figure it out.

I am turning 30 this year and decided I really needed to know how to style and blow dry my hair. Yes that's right - I NEVER knew how to blow dry it without it becoming a frizzy mess. Not for lack of trying, mind you. I tried several times over the years and even owned a few blow dryers that would sit wound up in my bathroom until I got rid of them.

I got to the point I was embarrassed to ask anyone because it seemed like common sense to most people - just not to me. I read a lot about it, but I am a hands-on person so unless someone shows me, I have a difficult time picturing it. I figured out the science behind it and how to work the blow dryer with the right attachments to really style it, but it never worked out for me.

My hubby actually asked me about it the other day and he said he just thought I always liked wearing my hair in a pony tail. Well, it was more convenient, but whenever I tried mostly anything different it was disastrous so I just stuck with what worked. I was too busy to figure out the details of doing something - anything with my hair. It is super curly, thick and can be very unruly anyway.

Yesterday I got my hair cut in an easy style to manage and had my stylist give me basic instructions how to blow dry it and style it and showed me. I tried it out this morning and although it was nowhere near perfect, it actually looked halfway decent. I know it will take a lot more practice, but I am excited I actually figured out something it has taken me more than half my life to figure out.

Yeah for small accomplishments;)

Enjoying Summer While It Lasts

WE headed to the pulminologist yesterday for a checkup for my younger son who was extremely sick last winter with four hospitalizations totally nearly a month in the hospital. He has severe asthma and acid reflux, but thankfully not several of the problems the doctors were concerned he was facing.

We have had him more or less stable for the last few months and we have enjoyed our new normal. We still do medicines with him every six hours except at night unless he is sick and then we do it around the clock combined with additional medicines. Still he is growing leaps and bounds developmentally. He went from not even rolling over at six months to rolling over both ways, sitting up and nearly crawling within two weeks.

The doctors are cautiously optimistic about his progress. They said this winter will probably still be rough for him, but since he is getting a few months now to grow stronger that should help him a lot.

We are just praying this winter will not be as rough or rougher than last. We have all kinds of medicines to help him fight colds and viruses when he gets too weak to fight them and we are praying we don't have to use them too much because we worry about the long-term effects on his growing.

If you can all keep him and our family in your prayers as summer winds down. We will probably go from being extremely social and out and about to being reclusive again and I am not sure I am ready to handle that again. I will do it because I know it could keep him healthier longer and give him more time to fight off sickness, but I am dreading how long it all is.

Marquette Method NFP: More Info

So I realized I promised additional information as soon as I received it on the Marquette Method and the online charting, forums and reference but didn't actually post the additional information so sorry to those who were waiting. It took them a bit longer to get it out than I was expecting and in between our baby was in the hospital again.

First some quick resources for Marquette Method Model of Natural Family Planning:

Marquette's Natural Family Planning Web Site

Online tracking, forums and professional guidance for method. (It's free for now as they are running it as a pilot online program).

ClearBlue Easy Fertility Monitor you need (You can also purchase them on eBay and some places teaching the program offer to rent the monitors for a small monthly fee. I believe St. Louis University is one of these programs).

The fertility sticks you need. On average you need about 10 a month.

Our experience with it so far has been a lot better than other methods we have tried. My husband is a scientist and very analytical and he likes it measures my hormone levels and gives us a better estimate of where we are in my cycle.

All of the professionals teaching it have been extremely helpful and open to questions, which is great. I strongly suggest calling them with any questions or concerns.

A Few Sites To Share

I love the web because you stumble across some great content as you are searching for other items. I am currently developing a hyper-local site for my area and plus my youngest has been relatively healthy (as in he only needs his 4 meds every six hours instead of constant doctors and hospital visits) so I guess I've been spending more time than usual on the web (if that's even possible).

A very random collection of what's on my mind:

1. If you love photography and good journalism, check out one of my favorite sites that was just relaunched interactivenarratives.org. There you can find some of the coolest online storytelling projects. It's inspiring to see what's out there. A lot of my former classmates' work, both in Internet journalism and photojournalism appear on the site often.


2. Switching gears - I'm loving the series at Rocks In My Dryer called "What I'd Like For You To Know." Shannon, who hosts the blog has been having different people be guest bloggers talking about their experiences. She had a women who has three autistic children, a woman who's husband is deployed and a woman who lost a baby and she has several coming up. I've been reading her blog off and on for a year, but this is by far my favorite thing she's done.

3. Speaking of Rocks In My Dryer, she had a link to an online store with adorable shirts saying Mom to the nth power. So if you have two kids, it would be Mom to the 2nd power.

4. Now totally switching gears ... A friend of mine showed me a baby gift they received when their son was born last year. It is a wooden block with the baby's name, birthdate and all other kinds of info on it and is super cute. They have them at craftefamily.com

5. And switching gears AGAIN - I am finding PriceGrabber.com very useful for big purchases. It is not the easiest site in the world to navigate, but if you put in the URL of something you buy, it will send you email updates for the next month if the price drops so you can get the difference. Like I said, it's only worth it for bigger purchases, but I know from watching ads, I can buy something one week and the next week I see it on sale $50 less ... not a great feeling!

OK - enough randomness for one day. Hope yours is blessed!