Fall Colors Tree Project 2014 (or something like that)

The tree in our front yard is beautiful! It's an oak tree (I'm pretty sure, I'm no botanist). In the fall it turns the most beautiful shades of yellow, orange and red. Then it starts to shed it's leaves. I'm not sure if that is the correct term for when a tree loses it's leaves. I guess it would be better to say, "the leaves start to fall". Whatever. You get my point. The leaves come off the branches and end up on the ground. Ok? Lots and lots of them. I've raked 2 times this year. Some of you may have raked more, but at my parents house we had a sweeper that we could pull behind the riding John Deere mower. Easy. When I moved out I always rented so it wasn't my problem. At the house in Zimmerman we were in the country so nobody cared if we raked, and most of the trees shed their leaves in the woods and not on my lawn. So raking 2 times is more then I'm used too, alright?

Now we live in a neighborhood. And the neighbor directly next door to us has the most perfectly manicured lawn. He is literally outside everyday from spring to fall doing something to his grass. Mowing it, raking it, watering it, feeding it, reading it stories. (Just kidding, he probably doesn't do the last one.) When we moved to our teeny tiny lot we sold our riding John Deere to a friend and bought a push mower and with Corey working as many hours and days as he does the grass probably wouldn't even get cut if we didn't pay the neighbor boys to cut. 

When the leaves start to fall I begin to feel the silent judgmental pressure of our cul de sac neighbors to get out there and rake them up. Last year, when I was out raking the neighbor with the perfect lawn came over and was shocked we were raking because the previous owner never did so he and his boys would end up doing it. (I was secretly kicking myself for doing it and not waiting until he did it for us.) Last year Corey helped me. This year I've done it all myself. Which includes bagging the leaves, carrying them up the hill (through the neighbors with the perfect lawns back yard) and dumping them behind our property. Uffda. 
There aren't many leaves left on the tree so I'm holding off on round three until they are all shed. 

Now that I'm done whining (for now) I will bring you to the point of this post. My fall colors tree project, or something like that. I'm not sure if that's the "official" name I want attached to it but that's all I got so I'm going with it.

I decided to try to take a picture of the beautiful/annoying tree everyday to show in dramatic fashion how the colors go from green to pretty fall colors. I missed a day or two here and there but it still turned out awesome. Once they start turning it really goes fast. So here is a GIF off all the pictures.

And here is a side by side of Day 1 and Day 19. In my GIF there is a day 22 but the leaves had started to shed pretty rapidly at that point so I used day 19 because that is before the tree started looking bare.

Do you have a favorite tree that you like to watch change colors every fall?

Our Favorite Oatmeal Muffin Recipe

Recently I've been looking for ways to change up breakfast for me and Stella. Seems like we always have eggs and toast. Or Cheerios and yogurt. And I wanted to incorporate oatmeal somehow. Why? I don't know, because I felt like it sounds healthy. And she doesn't quite know how to use a spoon, aside from banging it on her tray, so she uses her hands to eat oatmeal and turns into a hot mess.

Ok, technically she's eating eggs in this picture but you get the idea. 

So Googled "oatmeal muffins" and found this recipe, it was super easy and turned out delicious. It makes a good base recipe that you can add different fruit or nuts to. I've made several different batches and Stella LOVES them! She literally devours them.

Here is the recipe with pictures the first time I made it. And just so you know I took the pictures with my phone so the quality is not the greatest. You'll also notice that my kitchen is not clean. If I waited until my kitchen was clean and took the time to stage the food as I made it, let's be honest, it would never happen. This is real life people! I'm no Pioneer Woman. I'm a mom to a toddler so I'm lucky if my kitchen is clean once a week.  

So here we go!

First, add 1 cup of almond milk to 1 cup of oatmeal and let soak while getting the rest of the ingredients ready. (I used almond but you can use regular milk too.)

Then, because I didn't have any eggs I used 1 tablespoon ground flax seed and 2-3 tablespoons of water and let that soak for a few minutes. It kinda turns sticky and paste-y. Add 1/4 cup canola oil. I should have taken a picture of that because it seemed like the flax seed mixture and oil would never mix. (Oil and water, weird.) But eventually it did mix together nicely.

In my awesome Pampered Chef bowl (that I don't know the name of) I mixed the dry ingredients; 1/4 cup white flour, 3/4 cup wheat flour (I use a mixture of white and wheat because I like the texture better if there is a little white flour added, that's just my personal preference. It's also something my mom does so I think I got that from her. It's probably just in my head. Who knows.), 1/4 cup white sugar, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. (When I made these with apple chunks I added a smidge more cinnamon. Why? I donno, it sounded good.) Mix together well. I used a whisk to try to get rid of any clumps because I'm too lazy to dig out my sifter. 

At this point I realized I forgot to preheat my oven, so I did that. 425 degrees.

  
Then I mixed my oatmeal/milk mixture into the flax seed mixture and poured that mixture into my dry ingredient mixture and mixed until just combined. (Ever say a word so much it loses meaning. Yup, just happened.) 

Next is the part where you can get creative and add whatever goodies you like. The first time I did it I added a few handfuls of Craisins. The second time I added an apple I peeled and cut into small chucks. The third time I added Craisins and apple chucks. Whoa... getting crazy up in here!

Spoon the batter into lined muffin tins (makes about 12 muffins, depending on your goodies) and bake for 15-25 mins until a tooth pick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Mine are usually good after about 18-20 mins.

I should have taken a picture of a single muffin on a pretty plate but I was too anxious and hungry so I just dug in after patiently waiting for them too cool down.

I hope you enjoy making and eating these muffins as much as Stella and I do! I'd love to hear about your go to muffin recipe or different goodies you add to this muffin recipe.

My Cleaning Schedule

If you've ever been to my house you know that I'm not the best housekeeper. To be honest... I hate cleaning. For reals. 

I go to other peoples houses and wonder, "How do they do it?" Even when I am keeping up with the house work by the end of the day I look around and it looks like I didn't do any cleaning at all! Ugh, it never ends!

When Stella was first born we were living in Elk River, it's a long story and I won't go into it right now but we were living at my parents house. (They had moved out.) I really struggled those first couple months to get anything done. Stella wanted to cuddle all the time and I was enjoying every minute of it. I was still in the early stages of motherhood and finding enough time to even take a shower was a struggle. But because we were living at my parents house everyone and their brother knew where we lived... so it wasn't uncommon for the doorbell to ring unexpectedly in the middle of the day because someone wanted to see the baby. I appreciated all of the love we received and welcomed everyone in the house with open arms but my house was a disaster! We have three dogs... one being a very big dog that sheds more than any dog I have ever seen, so there was constantly dog hair all over the floor. Ick! I feel sorry for those poor people who came to visit and had to sit in my dirty house. 

So when we bought the house in Hastings I decided I needed to step it up and become a better housekeeper. Some days are better than others but most of the time the house is "pop-in ready". Which means if someone were to just "pop-in" unexpectedly the house would be in decent shape and I wouldn't feel sorry for the visitors who had to be in the house. Of course, now we live 60 miles away from Elk River so unexpected pop-ins never happen anymore.

To keep the house "pop-in ready", I created a cleaning schedule. I keep it in a sheet protector on my fridge and use a wet erase marker to check off the tasks. Then I just wipe it off and reuse it the next week. 

Ignore the fact that nothing is actually checked off of this list. :)

Do I do every item listed for the day everyday? No. I try to, but again, some days are better than others. When I do keep up with the list it makes cleaning a lot easier and quicker. Because I'm basically just doing touch ups everyday. Each day I have a different area I focus on, like on Wednesdays I clean the bathroom, (luckily we only have one right now, as the other is being renovated, that long journey will be a future post) this makes cleaning more attainable. If I had to deep clean the entire house in one day it would be overwhelming. This way it is broken up into smaller tasks and I'm more likely to keep up with it. I always feel gross when the house is a mess and now with Stella crawling and getting into everything I feel better knowing the floors have been vacuumed and mopped on a regular basis. 

Here is a close up of my schedule. 

Lately, I've been slacking a bit. (Hence the blank schedule shown hung on my refrigerator.) A lot of my time has been focused on The Harper Project and my new adventure selling candles on my Etsy shop. I'm hoping by posting this it will give me the motivation to get my butt in gear and get back on track. 

Do you have a cleaning schedule that you use to help keep your house clean? What has worked for you and what hasn't? I love getting new ideas!

Candle Making & Etsy

Making votive candles for Memory Boxes.

For part of The Harper Project Memory Boxes I handmade some small votive candles, I had never done any candle making before but I found that I really enjoyed doing it. So I started making more; different scents, colors, and containers. I decided to add them to my Etsy shop. I've had the shop for a while under a different name selling other items (I say selling very loosely) I've made and hadn't really done much with it so I changed the name to reflect the project (and also because I had to register The Harper Project as a "doing business as" name with the Secretary of State and I never did that with my old Etsy shop name) and decided to sell everything with the idea that the proceeds will go towards the The Harper Project Memory Boxes.

Making candles for the Etsy shop.

Not every item in the shop is for The Harper Project or babyloss but some of the items are. But for every item I sell a portion of the *proceeds will go towards the Memory Boxes. I have candles available now and I hope to have different scents available soon. I'd also like to sell other items geared toward babyloss. I'm hand making some bracelets for the Memory Boxes and if I get them figured out well enough I'd like to sell those too. I know that I have looked on Etsy for items specifically designed for babyloss that I can wear or have in the house as a memorial for Harper. 

Here is a breakdown of how much money will go towards the project for each item sold:

4oz candle tin ($6) or jar ($8) - $3 will go towards The Harper Project.
8oz candle tin ($7) or jar ($9) - $4 will go towards The Harper Project.
Nursery Art - $5 will go towards The Harper Project. 
(If you checked out my shop within the last few days, check it out again. I've adjusted some of the shipping prices. I'm still new at this and just got my mail scale from amazon yesterday.)

etsy.com/shop/theharperprojectshop

Any items bought before April 30th will have the donation go towards this years project. Sales after the 30th will go for next year.

It is a way to spread the word about The Harper Project all year and maybe babyloss families can find them on my Etsy shop and use them for their memorials while helping this project as well.

Click here --->The Harper Project Shop to go to the shop.

If anyone in the Elk River, Hastings or Mankato/Janesville area is interested in making a purchase and isn't in a rush for the product contact me first because *if* I can deliver you the items I have a code I can give you for free shipping.

Needed items for Memory Boxes

Donations and items I've collected for the Memory Boxes and Mommy Care Kits.

I've had a lot of people ask me what items are still needed for the Memory Boxes. I have 10 "boxes" put together at this point. Because this project is so new there is a big learning curve for me, so I thought I would list each box and what it has and what it still needs to give people an idea of what I'm still in need of. 

Box #1
Has: Figurine, candle, journal, picture frame, headband, seed packet & stuffed animal
Needs: Bracelet, Blanket
Box #2
Has: Figurine, candle, journal, picture frame, headband, seed packet & stuffed animal
Needs: Bracelet, Blanket
Box #3
Has: Candle, journal, picture frame, headband, seed packet & stuffed animal
Needs: Figurine or keepsake item, bracelet, blanket
Box #4
Has: Candle, journal, picture frame, headband, seed packet & stuffed animal
Needs: Figurine or keepsake item, bracelet, blanket
Box #5
Has: Candle, journal, picture frame, seed packet & stuffed animal
Needs: Figurine or keepsake item, blanket, bracelet
Box #6
Has: Candle, journal, picture frame, seed packet & stuffed animal
Needs: Figurine or keepsake item, blanket, bracelet
Box #7
Has: Candle, journal, picture frame, seed packet & stuffed animal
Needs: Figurine or keepsake item, blanket, bracelet

(Apparently, I can't count because I went from 7 to 9 in my inventorying, so please ignore)

Box #9

Has: Candle, journal, picture frame, seed packet & stuffed animal
Needs: Figurine or keepsake item, blanket, bracelet
Box #10
Has: Candle, journal, picture frame, seed packet & stuffed animal
Needs: Figurine or keepsake item, blanket, bracelet
Box #11
Has: Candle, journal, picture frame, seed packet & stuffed animal
Needs: Figurine or keepsake item, blanket, bracelet

The start of the Memory Boxes coming together, these still need some items and to be decorated.

So you can see that at the moment what I'm in need of the most is keepsake items, blankets and bracelets, also headbands for some of the boxes. 

Keepsake items can be angel figurines, angel ornaments, necklaces with angel wings or baby feet pendants. Or any item that you would give to someone who has just experienced a death in the family. 

Blankets are recommended to be hand made, knit, or crocheted - small in size like receiving blanket size or slightly bigger. Some families may use these blankets to wrap their baby in. 

The idea behind the headbands & bracelets came from the nurse at the hospital who is in charge of the babyloss program. They take pictures of the baby to give to the family and the nurse said she wanted to photograph the baby holding the bracelet and then the mom can take the bracelet home with her. So I'm going to be making a couple myself and I'm using white/cream beads with either pink or blue beads and then a charm. I have baby feet or doves. The headbands are to be put on the girls for pictures as well.

I am also in need of supplies to decorate the boxes. 
Fabric (it takes 3 1/5 ft by 3 ft to cover the boxes and lids, design should be "soft" not too busy or cheerful, soft flower patterns are nice)
Spray adhesive (to attach the fabric to the boxes)
White or cream colored tissue paper (to wrap some of the fragile item in that will go in the boxes)

I have not received any greeting cards. The staff likes to send cards to families on the anniversaries of their loss.

Items for the Mommy Care Kits are another idea if you are looking for something easy and inexpensive. All the items can be found at Target. Click *here* for a link to the list of items needed for the Mommy Care Kits. 

If you have an idea for something you'd like to donate that you don't see listed, please feel free to contact me!!! Donations of all kinds are welcome and the list is just a guideline. 

Click *here* for a link to a list of locations where donations can be dropped off. 

Also, I am planning to do more than 10 boxes so donations of all items are still welcome. (Click *here* for a link to the list of all the items needed.) At the end of the donation time (April 30th is the last day!) I will be using the monetary donations to fill items needed for boxes and buy supplies to decorating the boxes. Any items or money not used this year will be saved for next year.

I want to thank everyone who has already made a donation to The Harper Project! You have no idea how much it means to me to be supported by so many people! 

Please email me stellalynndesigns@gmail.com if you have any questions or to set up a donation pick up. Remember that April 30th is the last day to make your donations! And please put your name with the items that are donated so that I know where they came from!!!

Making the decision to stop breastfeeding.

Breastfeeding when you first start out is HARD. When Stella was first born and I tried breastfeeding she latched on right away and nursed like a pro so I thought, "Hey this will be easy!" 

Boy was I wrong.

As the days passed it became increasingly difficult to get Stella to nurse. At first she was just too tired, she slept ALL the time so I had to wake her up to nurse and she was too tired to try to latch on and would fall asleep instantly when she would. After that when she was awake to nurse she just couldn't get a good latch. The lactation consultant suggested we try nipple shields and those seemed to be helpful but I would have to nurse with the shields and then pump afterwords because the shields blocked nipple stimulation that would produce milk. So I was nursing for 10 mins on each side then pumping for 10 more minutes and I did that for about a week. It was such a process! (I've learned since then that lactation consultants tend to recommend nipple shields for all sorts of reasons that aren't needed.) I decided that I would just pump and then bottle feed Stella the milk. I did that for a couple weeks but I longed for the closeness you get when you nurse. So I went back to using the nipple shields. The lactation consultant said at that point my milk supply should be established enough that I could stop pumping each time after nursing. 

Stella as an itty bitty drinking a bottle of pumped milk.

Two months or so into nursing with the shields I wanted to wean Stella off of them. Even using the shields added an extra step to nursing. I couldn't just whip my boob out whenever Stella was hungry, I had to find the shields, make sure they were clean from the previous nursing session, attach the shield, keep the shield on while trying to get Stella to latch and then finally nurse. UGH! So to wean, anytime I would nurse I would try to get Stella to latch without the shield. Sometimes it would work others not so much. But one day out of the blue she just figured it out. It was so easy and nice not to have anything to hassle with when I wanted to nurse.

After finally mastering nursing, I loved it! It's such a great feeling to be able to give your baby exactly what she needs! And it's FREE! I became one of those moms who would nurse in public without a cover and I wanted to nurse Stella until after she was a year old. Ideally, I wanted to nurse her until she was 2 but we want to have another baby before then so my goal was to make it to the next pregnancy, 12-16 months. 

I loved nursing so much I would barely pump. I had just a few freezer bags with pumped milk for times when someone else would watch Stella. But since we moved, Corey and I do not get out much. Which is okay because we like to spend time with Stella whenever we can. But Corey and I are going to be taking a week long vacation in May, without the little princess. So I started pumping every night but was only getting an ounce or two a day. It was going to be impossible for me get a week long supply at that point. Plus, I would have to take the breast pump with on vacation and pump several times a day. 

Don't worry, you can't see any actual boob...

So with much sadness and regret I've made the decision to stop breastfeeding... I'm weaning Stella slowly. She will be a week or so shy of 11 months when we are completely done. I called our pediatrician (well, the lady I don't like who is covering for our regular pediatrician) and asked her what formula she recommends. And for as much as I didn't like her in person she was actually very reassuring on the phone. She went out of her way to let me know that I had done a great job by breastfeeding for as long as I did and that I shouldn't feel guilty for stopping at this point. She also said it was good for me to start early and slowly wean like I had planned. I felt a little better after talking to her. 


Today was the first day I cut out a nursing session and replaced it with a bottle. I used half pumped milk and half formula. It felt weird for me to give her a bottle... she's always been good at taking bottles but I missed the closeness I felt while nursing. I'm really really sad that I couldn't nurse longer. I mean technically I could, but logistically this is easier. 

How long did you nurse your little one for? Did you struggle when it came time to wean?

Stella's first time being sick.

Stella has never been sick before, besides a little cold or runny noise. I contribute it to my continued breastfeeding and also to the fact that she doesn't get out much so isn't around other sick people. (I'm not sure if that one is a good or a bad thing.) On Monday Stella had a runny nose but was acting normal. On Tuesday she woke up with greenish yellow goo oozing from her eyes and as the morning progressed her skin was turning pink around the eyes. She seemed to be acting normal but a little more fussy then normal. Her forehead felt a little warm but nothing that would make me super worried. I was using Young Living essential oils when I thought it was just a cold but I decided her eyes looked bad enough to bring her to the doctor. 

Our regular pediatrician is out on maternity leave so we saw whatever doctor was available. When we got there she could tell right away that Stella had pink eye. But after looking in her ears found that she also had ear infections in both ears. She also had a temp of 101.3. I felt horrible that I didn't know she had a temperature. I have never taken her temperature rectally, I'm afraid that I'm going to puncture her rectum or something. I keep telling myself that I need to buy one that takes the temperature from the ear I just haven't done it yet. 

We were given a prescription for antibiotics and sent on our way. I should also note that I did not like the doctor we saw, she was very smart but not personable at all. She was very technical in explaining things and for a layperson it was hard to understand. 

For the first couple nights it was really a struggle getting Stella to sleep. Her ears hurt her when she would lay down so we spent a couple nights sleeping in the living room in the lazy boy. But lets be honest, I did not get much sleep like that. So one morning I ended up just putting her in her crib, shut the doors, turned off the monitor, just let her cry it out and I went to bed. She must of fallen asleep eventually because I finally woke up at 9:30 and she was still sleeping. But I got some much needed rest. 

During the day she was a little more fussy then normal but she didn't want me to hold her, she would give me the "stiff arm", as Corey calls it. But if I would set her down she would cry. So that made it hard, I just wanted to comfort and cuddle her but she didn't want that.

Then on Friday I woke up with a horrible sore throat and as the day progressed I started feeling worse and worse. My ears were aching and my temperature was rising. I finally text Corey at 5pm and asked him to come home. (He gets done at 5:30 anyway) Once he was home I went to urgent care and was found to have an ear infection myself. The doctor wanted to give me a prescription decongestant but because I am breastfeeding I can't take that so I'm using Anfrin nasal spray and essential oils. I just started using essential oils and I do think that they work but I'm not at the point where I will use for Stella over medicine that my doctor prescribes. 

But Stella's small bout with sickness made me so thankful that we were blessed with a healthy baby. I can't image what it must be like for parents who have chronically sick kids. I know someone who as I write this has their newborn baby in the NICU. I can't imagine what that family is going through. I'm trying to keep that in perspective when I complain about having to take care of a sick baby.