We headed out on a road trip to Tennessee and Georgia to see family and enjoy some warmer temperatures this past weekend. And although we travel a lot between VA and DC with Birdie we've never taken her on a drive quite this long. She'a also in this in-between stage where she likes crayons and puzzles and the like but her attention span is still only about five to ten minutes (at most) with any of those activities. 

When packing her activity basket I decided to combat it the best way I knew how with kiddos - NEW. I picked up things over the course of a few weeks that I knew she would enjoy and hid them from her. Some new books for her to flip through, a dry erase board and crayons and a few new toys. I also packed plenty of snacks. Although at home I have been trying to be better about cutting out her snacks or at least substituting them with fruit or veggies I knew all bets would be off on the drive. I still managed to find some remotely healthy items at our local COOP like the oatmeal "snackimals" you see above and some Ella's pouches (I got the ones that are heartier and have veggies in them, not just fruit). And of course as a last resort we downloaded a few shows for her on my Kindle. 

We left right during her nap time so she slept for a good hour and then I can happily say her basket kept her entertained and occupied right up until we made it to our destination! I was so proud of her for how well she did, after all even papa bear and I were itching to get out of the car at that point! 

I just thought I'd share in case any of you were looking for ideas, I know I always love posts like these from my fellow mamas because I'll take all the ideas, advice and suggestions I can get! 

I wanted to thank all of you so much for your kind words and congratulations - we are beyond touched!! Our little family felt so much love and we want you to know just how grateful we are for your support and thoughtfulness. I can't wait to share this pregnancy with you, it's been the hardest thing to keep it a secret for so long!

I also wanted to share a little more about the afternoon that we spent in Georgetown with Saraya, our photographer. As you mamas out there know getting a toddler to stay still long enough to snap a photo is no easy feat. Then factor in your spouse's general shyness over having his photo taken and sheesh! Things get stressful! Well thank goodness for people like Saraya who instantly put your husband at ease and put your baby in a trance. I honestly have never seen Birdie be such a diva in front of the camera - you would have thought the entire shoot was just about her!! We laughed and snapped our way through Georgetown and it felt like the time just flew by. And then when we got the photos back we were just blown away! It was us - no fuss, no posing, just the three of us doing what we do best - loving up on each other. I instantly knew these would be photos I would treasure forever. 

Pretty soon papa bear and I will each have a baby in our arms and the days of solely focusing on our little princess will be a distant memory. But right now, she is the apple of our eye and it's nice to have all those feelings captured on camera for us to have forever. 

Thank you Saraya for giving our family this gorgeous gift! 

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Saraya is also generously offering our readers $50 off her regular rate of $150 if you mention Flora & Fauna and book within the next 3 days! You can contact her by visiting her website: www.sarayacheney.com

Well folks day 30 came and without much particular fanfare. When we started this I was sure I would be dying at this point, salivating at the mere thought of a diet coke or a muffin. Instead I just feel a passionate desire to keep eating this way as much as possible. This is going to be a beast of a post because there really is no succinct way to verbalize how I feel about this experience. So thank you for bearing with me! 

I think the first thing that happened when we started Whole30 was a reassessment of our previous eating habits. We weren't eating poorly before, especially not at home. We don't have sweets and desserts at home, unless I make them, and I stuck to cooking fairly healthy meals. However, what we couldn't have seen without this journey was just how much we were snacking ALL THE TIME. This is killer. In between meals, several times a day we would essentially be having tiny little meals that rarely amounted to anything good. What we realized was that this completely prevented our body from functioning properly and from knowing when we should be full from a meal or how much of the meal to eat in the first place. With snacking out of the way we quickly learned to eat three large healthy meals a day. But most importantly we learned to be ok with being hungry. I think most of the West at this point has conditioned people to think that being hungry is a horrible thing and this feeling must be abated as soon as possible, thus fast food and food essentially EVERYWHERE you go - gas stations, home supply stores, even clothing stores!! 

Looking back on my life I now realize just how grateful I should be to my mum for the way she raised us. When I was a kid I thought she was harsh for never allowing us to snack between meals but now I realize how wise creating that healthy habit in us was. I remember often being hungry that last hour before lunch or dinner and I realize that that was a perfectly healthy and normal feeling. It's a feeling I completely erased from my life in college and thereon forward. It's taken time to retrain my mind, yes, but now that so much time has passed it feels good to be in a grocery store while hungry and not feel the desire to sneak a small bag of chips or a granola bar into my cart. Instead, I now wait until I'm home and if I'm that hungry I just go ahead and start working on lunch or dinner. 

Another huge revelation was seeing just how dependent I had become on sugar in my life. I couldn't drink a cup of tea without a dollop of honey, all of my non-water drinks had to be sweetened and dessert was not dessert unless it gave me a toothache. This was a hard one for me to kick since I inherited my dad's sweet tooth but about halfway in I realized that I was actually masking the natural flavors of whatever I was eating or drinking with all that sweetener. I also realized that some things are even more delicious in their natural state. This was a HUGE one for me. Now I'm not saying I'll never enjoy a piece of chocolate again (in fact I have a lovely chocolate bar waiting for me in the kitchen as I write this, a little present to myself for finishing) but I no longer view sugar as a daily necessity but as an occasional treat. 

Something that we took a very frank look at during this journey was our relationship with eating out and processed foods. This is the area where the change we decided to make is perhaps the most radical - no processed food or "bad/chain" restaurants EVER. There is simply no excuse. Essentially all processed food, whether savory or sweet, has sugar in it and the presence of that will inevitably break my ability to monitor what I'm eating and also break my bodies ability to process food in a normal and healthy way. Bad restaurants create a never ending cycle of overeating and dulling our palates. Not to mention the fact that we never used to eat out at these places without enjoying several refills of diet coke and we feel that we can't cut that out without cutting out its best enemy. By partaking in that kind of food we make it monstrously difficult for ourselves to continue making healthy choices, it would be too tempting to slide back into our old ways. 

This is actually a good place to talk about what it was like doing Whole30 while pregnant. I have previously mentioned that I had a terrible time during my first trimester, I was nauseous pretty much all day and throwing up several times a week. However, just like during my last pregnancy the one thing that seemed to "help" was fast food. French fries were like magic to me, instantly making the nausea subside. So for almost two months I was eating garbage practically every day. My skin looked awful, I felt lethargic and exhausted (partially due to pregnancy), just overall I felt terrible. So I was really looking forward to feeding my body well, not to mention I'm pretty sure my body was crying out for something other than a whopper. So eating healthy and super clean felt wonderful! My skin cleared up in a week, I had more energy than ever and I felt strong, healthy and happy. If anything I think pregnancy is the perfect time to do Whole30 (granted you're not dealing with morning sickness or food aversions). The fact that I was eating so many fruits and vegetables, drinking so much water and preparing my food in the cleanest way possible just made me feel empowered and thrilled to know that I was doing the best for myself and this little baby. 

But the most important thing that Whole30 taught my husband and me is that eating healthy and well is sustainable, realistic and a must. Cutting corners when it comes to mealtime isn't as innocent as we thought because essentially we are cutting corners with our health and the cost of that would one day be astronomical. So yes, perhaps to eat this way we have to spend a couple more hours in the kitchen every day, have more dirty dishes, spend a little more money and be more diligent with reading labels but the results are so worth it. In fact, cooking together during Whole30 has been one of our favorite parts of this experience. Papa bear was always a little shy in the kitchen and it has helped him gain so much confidence. Because of how much work is involved with cooking three meals every day I knew I could have never pulled it off on my own and we've had a blast prepping and cooking alongside each other, it's like an added bonus! 

I think I learned more about food and eating habits during these thirty days than I have in the last five years and I am so excited to go forward with renewed resolve and so many good new habits under my belt. I think this is going to be ongoing conversation in our house and I will do my best to keep you posted on how we do going forward. As they say eating healthy isn't a sprint, it's a marathon and we're going to keep learning and doing our best!

Before I sign off here is the last installment of our meals, these are dinners, lunches and snacks we've been having:

butternut squash soup

thai lettuce wraps - turkey, "peanut" sauce (I made my own with almond butter) cauliflower rice with pineapple and a mango, tomato & onion salad

...

I do want to briefly mention here that I am aware that we are very fortunate in that due to our current work situation it affords my husband and myself a lot of time at home, this made Whole30 much easier since we could actually cook from scratch three meals a day. This would definitely be more difficult for someone working 9 to 5 outside of the home. However, the days that papa bear traveled for work we got creative with packing his meals the night before and making sure he had healthy snacks on hand with him. I think one way around this predicament would be spending more time prepping meals one day a week and also cooking bigger batches of food so as to have more leftovers. We actually naturally got better at this by the end. And as far as the expense goes I will be honest with you and just share how it worked for us:

- 1st week to set up: $250 at Costco

- 3rd week: $100 at Costco

- 4th week: $70 at Trader Joe's

It is expensive to set up your fridge and pantry initially but as time goes by it actually becomes cheaper and cheaper to eat this way, especially since we practically stopped eating out. 

^ a new space for birdie's books ^

^ some products I've been loving lately ^

^ boots always on hand for a quick walk outside ^

^ summer clothes now fill birdie's drawers, can't wait for her to wear them! ^

Did this week go by super fast for anyone else? It feels like I blinked and it was Friday!! Which is awesome! I love when that happens. Especially when Friday means a trip up to DC to see family, have a few much needed date nights and probably a little bit of shopping. I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am about this!! I haven't seen my mama and papa in ages and I always relish a trip to my favorite city. 

And it doesn't hurt that this weekend is Easter Sunday. I've always had a special place in my heart for Easter. I suppose a part of me even misses the Russian Easter tradition. The Saturday night candlelight vigils and the sound of church bells ringing through the air at the first sign of daybreak. There was so much reverence and sanctity to the whole occasion. It was a time for rebirth, you could see it on the tear stained faces of the parishioners walking home with their blessed pascha's frosted in white. I too am looking forward to taking some time this Sunday morning to reflect on where I am in my relationship with God, where I would like to be and to allow God to work in me. 

Wishing all of you a wonderful weekend and may you be blessed in this wonderful new season!!

I can't believe there are just a handful of days left before we finish our Whole30! It went by so much faster than I expected and was much easier than I expected. I do believe that a lot of has to do with preparation and having the right ingredients and tools on hand. On that note I wanted to share a little bit about things that we found really helpful on this journey. 

Let me start out by saying that pre-Whole30 both papa bear and I had a big problem with diet coke or just sweetened beverages in general. I was the worst, I couldn't even imagine eating a meal without some sort of "juice" or soda. So I knew a glass of water with lunch or dinner wouldn't cut it. We instead stocked up on Pellegrino at Costco and I took Jenna's recommendation and bought the Tazo iced tea in passion that I already loved so much at Starbucks. I would make batches of the iced tea or jugs of water with berries and citrus fruit and I can honestly say I happily enjoy my meals with either one of those beverages. There are even days I do just have a glass of water (we drink plain water throughout the day as staying hydrated is of utmost importance). 

Next, I'll brake down the products we use the most on a practically daily basis:

poached egg, sweet potato hash browns, avocado, salmon

avocado, scrambled eggs whites, bacon, tomatoes

eggs whites baked in sweet peppers, bacon, tomatoes

coconut flour pancakes, strawberries & strawberry puree*

omelet with tomatoes, green onions & parsley, sweet potato hash browns

As some of you know papa bear and I started Whole30 21 days ago. I was so inspired by Jenna's story and the way she approached it and explained it and we both decided that it was time for a change for us. I have a lot, a lot, to say about this and our experience but I want to save my thoughts for the end. In the mean time since I didn't want to inundate my instagram feed with food photos I figured I would start by sharing some of the meals we've been having. 

A lot of people say they struggle with breakfast when on Whole30, mostly it seems to be due to a dislike for eggs. I personally didn't have this problem since I love eggs but it was a little more difficult for papa bear. For him, what worked was loading up on fruit with some almond butter and the only way he did like his eggs was "deviled" so that is what he ended up doing. Recently he found some Whole30 compliant breakfast sausages at our local COOP and he's really been enjoying those. It's so important to get a good amount of protein in the morning so I'm glad he was able to find a way to do that. 

If you are interested in any of the recipes simply let me know in the comments and I will be more than happy to share! I will also be doing a "staples" post about Whole30 at some point and I will list all the tools/foods that we have been using on a daily basis that have made this a breeze!

* I realize that this is a what Whole30 would consider a SWYPO meal but every once in a while I feel like you have to treat yourself in order to keep going. I'll talk about this in more detail later. 

coat - asos, sunnies - karen walker, blouse & pants - target, shoes - shoemint

Last night I was praying I could fall asleep, the cloying heat was unbearable. The whirring fan by our bed offered little solace but I hoped my exhaustion would take me out. Thankfully it did and fairly quickly to my surprise. Heat and all I was off to dreamland...

I woke up pleasantly surprised by the cool air. The birds were singing their spring song and within minutes I heard the predictable babbling from the room next door. It was morning at our house. A quick diaper change was in order and I hastily threw a robe on. Soon our house would be filled with the sound of sizzles from the frying pans, familiar melodies of children's cartoons and silverware clinking its way onto the table. We eat and conversation seeps out slowly out of our still sleepy mouths. Birdie is always done before us and we finish breakfast to the pitter patter of tiny bare feet against our cool floors. 

As papa bear gets ready to leave we don our boots and jackets to see him off. The weather says highs in the 70s today but at this hour the air is chilly, the wind forcing me to wrap my jacket a little tighter around my chest. It's quiet, save for the buzz of a stray fly or two and the occasional chirp here and there. You can hear every step - the crunch of leaves or the muffled thuds over the dry dirt. We wave goodbye and do a little mandatory exploring before heading back inside. 

Once home we resume our daily schedule of mess making and general mischief. Soon toys will be strewn everywhere, crayons will weasel themselves under tables and chairs and a trail of cheddar bunnies will inevitably lead to the culprit. 

It's mornings like these - simple and predictable, that I hope to never take for granted.