SpoonFullofJelly

I want to truly thank all those that have followed this blog for the past 3 years. I have written about the journey of infertility and adoption on this blog. I threw in the fun books, money management tips and even gluten free taste tests. I followed many other blogs that were traveling down the same path. Once they conceived or adopted, their blogs stopped. If the author kept writing, the material quickly changed to baby related posts. Those posts were hard to read while Hubby and I kept struggling month after month. I soon unplugged and went on a search for something else. Infertility is a life long problem. Hubby and I are not "cured". We are still unable to conceive on our own. We likely will never be able to. Because of that, Hubby and I will continue to share our story and our strength. Male factor infertility is the main cause of our infertility. Hubby has shared his thoughts and feelings many times over the years here on this blog. It was  He is a couples t...

This is another set of buzz words that generation-Xers and Millennial knows, but can confuse older generations.When talking with my mother and grand-mother, I told them that Hubby and I are living intentionally. In other words, we are planners and are making conscience decisions for every aspect of our lives. Eyebrows went up. Laughs kind of slipped out too... My family was trying to understand how 'living intentionally' was different than what they did. I asked them why did they raise us the way they did. The responses often reflected back on that's how they were raised. My parents tried to do better than their parents, but they didnt add as much thought that Hubby and I have. Hubby and I have taken so many aspects of our lives and decided what we want to do and don't want to do. We have thought through the possible good and bad of our decisions. We analyzed rather we agree or disagree with what is popular vs. weird, and chose what fits best for us. We just do...

Every family should have an annual theme. A theme is what the family is striving for. It is what motivates them to do something that year. It can guide them towards or even away from a situation. Each December Hubby and I sit down to discuss what our theme of the year will be. We want to make sure that we are making strides for a better year. The theme for us isn’t based on one goal like “weight lost”, but an overall idea that can be relayed into other aspects of our lives. Cleanse   In 2019, we want to cleanse ourselves of all that we do not need, want, and care to carry forward. We are appling this theme to holidays, friends, food and careers. We are clearing out the useless, the burden laden and the old. It isn't enough to just ignore things, that is merrily just a quick fix. We want to permanently adjust what we do, what we buy, what we wear and what we eat. As one friend put it "yall getting hippy-er?!" And he isnt referring to my thighs... Financial...

Half way through the month! I wanted to start this year off right by reading. I have come up with a good schedule for reading.I will share in the future on how I have added more reading time to our family schedule. This month I and reading The 5 Love languages by Gary Chapman. This book isn't new but it is a must read. I have had many conflicts with my mother-in-law. We do not see eye to eye on many aspects of living. The one lifestyle that has the biggest conflict is food followed by toys. I believe her main love languages are service and gift giving. If it wasn't for this book, I would not have known how to approach her complaints about gifts. She mainly loves to do for people and expects for people to do for her. I am not a service focused person at all. Its nice that people do things for me, but I often find it difficult to deal with because I have to go behind people to fix or adjust what was done. I am really not a gift-giving person either. I gift during holidays...

So how did your year go? Was 2018 the year that you accomplish what you wanted to? Did life take you by surprise and nothing went according to plans? Hubby and I began 2018 with a moniker/theme for the year. For us, 2018 was going to be the year of Completion . And we did live up to that! At the end of 2017, I set specific goals that I wanted to complete in different aspects of my life during 2018. Check out ny 2018 goals here . So here is what I have Completed in 2018. The Financial Pay off 3 of my small Student Loans Well, I paid off one loan. Finances got really tight around April and September and we had to spend the extra payments that we were going to make.  The Self Improvement Drop 30 lbs! I am so proud of myself. I lost 24 pounds in 2018. I was determined not to gain weight during the last two festive months. I kept stretching and moving. For a recap, I did not do Whole 30 nor did join a group or program. I simply cut my meat consumption down...

This gift giving holiday will be quite interesting this year. My son will be 14 months old. He may not understand all the rituals and festivities that take place during this time for a while, but he will understand receiving. This past summer when he was only 9 months old, he quickly caught on that when someone stood in my parent's kitchen at the butcher's block, he was going to get fed. There were times when we were there just to prep dinner, but he came running because he was expecting to receiving something. So with the holiday season upon us, Hubby and I began to reevaluate how we wanted to deal with this massive gift giving season. We wondered if too many gifts would make a difference at this age or if we need to set the tone now for the future. We needed to make a decision on quantity and type of gifts and hope this would trickle down to other holidays and birthdays.  I don't buy into all marketing schemes that our child needs a certain type of toy or electroni...

Happy 250th!!! This is a very special post because it's number 250!!!! I wrote a ton of posts back when I was living and traveling around Asia, but when I returned home, I started this journey over. Tons of thoughts were shared, and tears were shed. Yet here we are, 250 posts later. I was pondering on what I should tell my dedicated readers. I have been writing about tackling debt, infertility, adoption, and even our food journeys for the past 4 years. The most recent journey I have been on is reducing meat. My eyes have been opened to the effects of over-consumption of red meat and dairy and boy I can't look away. So for my #250th blog post, I thought I would bring to you, my heart felt journey of trying to become meat-free. This is a work in process that began last year. If this is your first time visiting me, check out my first and second post of becoming meat-free. Check out my first journey of being meat free for a month After learning about how important pl...

Over the top birthday parties are not new concept. They were the center of parent's secret conversations for years. But what I was surprised to learn is that it is still a problem. Large parties are the norm for so many families while others cut cake with a handful of friends. If you are new to the parenting thing like me, here are a few tips I've gathered over the last month planning my son's first birthday. I am not an expert on baby birthdays, but my husband is an expert on depression and stress. Some of his clients suffer from social anxiety and birthday parties for children are part of the problem. Go Big or Go Home Traveling petting zoo, human-sized Characters, Pony rides OH MY! The list can go on and on for what can embellish the 1st year's birthday party. But going big can be too much stress. I would rather go home! Tons of Littles The thought of spending the afternoon with 20 toddlers may excite you or actually scare the pants off of you. Think abou...

If you are just joining me on how I share new skills with my tot, head back to part one. I spoke of the schedule I used for working with the babies and toddlers overseas. This schedule is not dependent on time. It may take you 20 minutes to read a story, two minutes to point out the vocab words and half hour singing the lullaby because baby loves the song. The point is the complete these activities throughout the day. If your little one isn't into singing on Day 2, skip it. In Japan, the focus was not to drill the information into the child. The goal was to continue to introduce new words, new experiences and constantly be surrounded by the spoke language. Why Rather you are focusing on your native language or a foreign language, never stop reading. Never stop introducing new vocabulary. Never stop exploring the world around you. Babies and toddlers are soaking up everything. I am working hard to add new vocab and books to Baby E's life because I have seen the result...

Babies need books just as much as they need diapers! Perhaps a baby can live without diapers, but they should not live without books. I am old fashioned and I believe in the power of reading. I like physically holding books in my hand. I love the feel of pages and the smell of hardcovers. I did not jump on the digital book craze, but slowly crept in. I am currently reading three books on my phone, only because they were free. It takes me twice as long to finish them. I plan on keeping Baby E surrounded by hard copies of books. I want him to learn how to turn pages rather than swipe left. I'm judging those that love digital book...Yall, do your thing! I am making a list of books that I want to introduce to Baby E this school year. I am doing this now because it allows for Hubby and I to reduce the amount of guessing. Life gets busy during the winter. Our weather forces us inside and I don't want to wake up next spring and have missed out of the opportunity to have intr...

I spent nearly two years living and working in Japan at an English School. Not only did I develop programs for my branch office to increase their sales, but I also taught English. I taught hundreds of children under the age of 18. The youngest group was a baby class of five, 6 month old babies. The babies began to respond to English commands and then speak English and Japanese around 18 months old. I was amazed! The babies attended English lessons 1.5 hours a day, three days a week. This was considered "early childhood education" for these families. Most of these families believed that language must be introduced early in order to give their child the best advantage of being bilingual. They were right. The toddler group that I taught after the baby class was able to hold a full conversation like a native English speaker after one year of learning. I promised myself that I would do the same type of lessons with my future children. Baby E Playing with an animal so...

Getting out the house for one day can be a hassle when you have a baby. Adding in a overnight trip can cause panic. What do you think a month away from home was? For us, Pure Joy! The best travel advice I can give is "Don't sweat the small stuff!" I was scared that he was going to scream the whole flight or not be his usual playful self the whole trip, but he was fine. We traveled to 3 states, and experienced 3 different environments all within the month. Baby E was a trooper in the city, country and at the beach. His schedule was a little off because of the time changes, but he was his usual self in a couple days. Here is how we did it. 1. Pack into 1 Suitcase We each had 2 packing cubes that we rolled about 10 interchangeable outfits into the cubes. The key to making this work is keeping the colors interchangeable. Don't pack that one shirt that can only match that one pair of bottoms. Pack PJs on top. This helped us to get baby dressed for bed quickly e...

This is it. We are now counting down the next four years! In four years, our first and hopefully not only child will begin Kindergarten. The first year of formal education is such an important year. The choices we make will decide how our child will learn. That year will begin to mode our lives as we will officially live on around a "school calendar". We sort of do that now that Hubby works in a school, but schooled student's don't get vacation days like employees. In four years, we will have to make a decision rather we will place our child in private school or homeschool them. This decision is so important and engulfs our moral decision making. This decision is also a financial decision. Today's actions will depict what will happen in four years. Since private schools and homeschools aren't free, Hubby and I will need to pay OFF our last debt- student loans. As Baby E creeps towards one year of age, the ever growing pile of student loan debt is gett...

Summer can't be over yet! August, my birth month, is always a sad time for me. It was always a sign of the end of summer and the beginning of school. I'm way past school age, but now as a parent, I realize that August will be the beginning of school again. August directs people to improving their habits and routine and I'm no different. I have re-evaluated my life over the past few weeks and changed the way I eat, how I work out, and even applied to new jobs during this month. Check me out on Instagram to see what I've been getting myself into lately. In the mean time, I have cracked open two book this month. This Christian book contain 60 short stories about the ups and downs of being a mother. Each story has a dose of humor and a eye widening realization. Each day I am reading 2 or 3 inserts from this book. The key is being able to read this book in the bath tub. Then I'll have it made! Where do I begin with this book? I received this book free fro...

Welcome to Summer! The lazy days of summer began this week. School is officially out! Students, teachers and staff are home and sleeping in. We have all our large summer plans laid out on the calendar. We will be taking a trip to the desert and the beach! We are so excited to see and learn something new. We camp every summer. We are still making plans for a camp trip. It seems daunting to camp with a baby especially since our little guy is trying to walk and is still in the oral stage. We make small summer plans each summer. They are activities that mark summer and allow us to be outdoors during our short summertime. This year includes making ice cream, having picnics and reading books by the lake. Once again we are making sure that Baby E enjoys some picture books as well as his evening story book. Baby E He loves sound effects right now. We are reading books that have a focus on sound effects from trucks, trains and animals. We are also using the following book, F...

Half of 2018 is over! Did you accomplish anything from your resolution list from January? Are you working towards your annual goals both at home and work? I couldn't believe my eyes as I filled in my month budget. The year is half way over and all I could think about where did the time go! I revisited my resolution list and hoped that I didn't get too far off course. I also had to remind myself some things that I might have forgotten to work on. My lists usually are on my cork board, but I moved it. Out of sight is out of mind!  The Self Improvement Drop 30 lbs! I'm happy to report that I have lost 14 lbs so far! It is amazing how quickly the weight fell off. I have not done Whole 30 yet. I actually got in the floor and did some exercises and yoga. I pushed myself to the limit a few times a week and I saw results. I believe I will hit this goal. The Family Explore with the baby Spend time with aging grandparents This summer I will be able to explore...

If you have been following us for a while, you might be wondering, what happened with our debt. Our last update was March 2017. Well we have been super busy! From April 2016 - March 2017, we were very busy. We worked two jobs a piece and busted our butts to pay off debt. We wanted to clear everything before we got to the monster student loans. We paid off the following (most of these were not apart of our first list ):   Forgotten Medical Bill: $1,141 Surgery Bills Total: $1,618 IUI Medical Bill: $1730 Private Student Loan: $5,273.53 Car Loan: $11,818.01 We've Dissed another $21,581 Worth of Debt in 11 months!!! After we paid off our car in early 2017, life happened.  We adopted a baby! Now that we are on the other side of all that work, I have noticed how much disposable income we had in the household. If someone would have told me to come up with $20,000 dollars by the end of the year, I would have just laughed.  The day we started dissing debt in 2...

We love Cloth Diapering! After 8 months, Hubby and I are still elbow deep in cloth diapers, by choice! Despite the opinions of our friends, it isn't gross, it isn't a waste of my 'precious' time and its not just for Hippies.  I have really enjoyed my son's colorful soft scoot across our floor lately. Cloth Diapering has made a serious come back and they are so adorable! If you are a parent, you probably have heard of cloth diapers. If you need a break down of what are modern cloth diapers, please check out  here . But what I wanted to share is my stash and storage. In the beginning when I was trying to chose between disposables and cloth, I had a really hard time estimating what I needed and when I needed it. Since there are so many varieties, it was really difficult to figure out what to buy. I took the most common suggestion and brought a few of each type. Once we were a month into cloth diapering, I purchased 5 more diapers. This is what I purchased:...

The day that I didnt speak to my baby was a day that I learned so much about communication. Seven month olds can't speak. They can't read our minds and we can't read theirs. Communication has to come in a different form when it comes to babies. About a week ago, we woke up early Sunday morning with a crying and hot baby. He had a fever. The fever broke later that day but a stuffy nose, cough and sneeze replaced it. On Monday, I woke up with whatever he had. For a whole week, we swapped this nasty cold. Even my husband came down with the cold. By the weekend, I was losing my voice. By the following Monday, I was hoarse. When I tried to talk, Baby E would jerk away and cry. I sounded like I was stuck in a vacuum cleaner. I couldn't talk. So it began, the day that I didn't speak to my child. This is what I learned. 1. Quiet book time is still considered reading. Each day I flip through a half dozen of picture books. I tried to focus on the pictures while rea...

When you have only little children in your home, Summer can seem like a chore. Day care is open but is optional. We learned that day care can have limited spots for the toddler and pre-school rooms. So what are you going to do with all that time on your hands? I have suggested 9 fun activities to make things run smoothly without too much guessing. My goal was to spark a thought of something that you can do so that you can enjoy the sun. Since we have snow from November-April, we take full advantage of the weather. Hubby and I live by our calendars. It allows for us not to miss special events. If you are like us, grab your calendar and get to planning the 100 Days of Summer. 1. Take a Dip Find the local swimming hole and take a dip. Our goal is to take our son to various swimming pools around town throughout the summer. This is a win-win as we love to cool off too. Baby Benefit: Introduce baby to pools/water/outdoor play 2. Take a Class Together Babies love to do things...