I've been making a concentrated effort to remember to drink my herbal pregnancy tea daily, and it really does help me feel better! I've been more relaxed, less tired, and just felt better overall. Whether it's the extra fluids, the iron-rich alfalfa, the swelling-reducing nettles, the relaxing peppermint, or the uterus-toning red raspberry leaf -- I don't know, but I'm not complaining! ;)

I still have plenty of herbs left from when I ordered a couple years ago. I mix up the (dry) tea and then brew it using an IngenuiTEA tea pot.

I really love the IngenuiTEA pot for brewing loose leaf teas! It is so SO easy and in the 3 years I've had it, I've used it hundreds of times. Loose leaf teas almost always taste a lot better than the packaged pre-bagged teas, in my opinion. :)

Kathryn asked:

I am getting conflicting reports about whether raspberry leaf tea is safe for pregnant women to consume. Some say only during the 3rd trimester, some say all throughout the pregnancy. Any comments would be appreciated!

I have most commonly heard that red raspberry leaf tea is safe to consume in these quantities:

First trimester -- 1 cup per day
Second trimester -- 2 cups per day
Third trimester -- 3 cups per day

If you have a history of miscarriage, you may want to avoid red raspberry leaf in early pregnancy.

Herbs (like most things!) affect people in different ways so what worked for me may not be best for everyone. This is why I hesitate to get too specific! ;)

Frozen Blueberries are one of my childrens' favorite snacks during hot summer days. Blueberries are naturally so sweet that they taste like candy to us! :)

The boys (ages 5 and 3) sit at the table with a bowl of blueberries and a spoon, instructed not to get their hands all blue (and certainly not to wipe it all over their clothes!). ;)

I usually pop the blueberries one by one into Ruth's mouth. She's good about keeping her mouth closed while she eats and not making a mess. :)

We get frozen blueberries in 5-pound bags at Costco for about $2 a pound. Besides eating them plain, we make blueberry smoothies and put them in oatmeal for breakfast! :)

After reading my other post about preparing for a new baby, a number of people have asked for more information about what I would consider to be necessary baby things to own.

So get ready for a photo tutorial of our baby stuff! :) We're currently a family of 5 living in a 900-sq.ft. apartment. Even though I didn't consider myself a packrat, I pared down even more when we moved here 6 months ago. Read more...

Like the normal 4-year-old boy he is, Yehoshua would love to run around the house with the pizza cutter, pretending it's his knife.

Yesterday's lunch of cheese quesadillas provided the perfect opportunity for Yehoshua to have some fun with the pizza cutter!

He cut numerous different shapes and then we had a little "math class" during lunch, talking about shapes. ;)

Surprisingly, the melted mozzarella cheese on crispy flour tortillas was almost as tasty as a breaded/fried mozzarella stick! We used flour tortillas and shredded mozzarella cheese, both from Costco. Yum!!

Amy is hosting Kitchen Tip Tuesdays for me today! Be sure to head over to her blog to read about making fresh strawberry limeade slushes, and you can add your links over there this week too! :)

My tip this week is about dealing with fussy eaters at the dinner table!

I've gotten a number of emails from moms wondering what to do with children who are picky eaters. One mom writes:

I have three kids age 6 and under. My husband is an over the road trucker and gone all the time. It's hard to come up with stuff that everyone will eat. No one likes hamburger. Not big on the veggies, although I do offer them. What can you suggest?

Our children actually eat some of whatever we're having for our meals. We have made them do this from the time they started eating solid foods (at about 10 months old) starting with whatever they were able to eat. I started with giving them some of whatever vegetable we were eating for the meal. Then fruit... that sort of thing.

Gradually they have developed a taste for most things, and they must eat at least a bite of even the things they don't care for. For the longest time, my boys didn't care for lettuce, so I would only make them eat 1 small leaf on their plate. Over the last year or so, I have gradually increased and they now are accustomed to eating 8-10 small lettuce leaves on their plates when we have salad at our meal. (For reference, my boys are currently 3 and almost-5.)

If they are being particularly fussy about a meal, it usually means they aren't really that hungry, and we let them wait to eat. NO snacks and certainly NO desserts until they have eaten the "real food" for the meal.

When a child is hungry, they become much less particular about what they will eat. ;) If my children don't want to finish their food, that is fine, but they do not get any sweets/dessert and when they are hungry later for a snack, they have to finish their food first.

It sounds kind of hardline, and I suppose it is. But this strategy has eliminated most mealtime issues and our children are happy, healthy eaters! :)

I know there are certain foods that my children may never develop a taste for, and that is all right. Since we are offering them several healthy foods at each meal, they can fill up on what they do like while still eating a little of what they don't like as well. (And in my experience, if given the option, children will usually gravitate towards the sweets/desserts and pass over the healthy stuff even if they like the healthy stuff!)

Anyway, I hope some of this info can be helpful to you as you go about deciding what changes to incorporate in your home to help mealtimes become less stressful! :)

Does anyone else have good tips to add on the topic of children and eating? I'd love to hear them! Even though what I outlined above has worked well for us, I'm all about new ways to make life more fun! :)

Also, be sure to head over to Amy's blog this week for more great kitchen tips! :)

The boys and I did a fun little "school" (science, right?) project today. We made edible robins' nests with little blue eggs! :)

We used these ingredients to make 3 nests:

3 small handfuls fresh spinach leaves
1 1/2 cups freshly grated carrots
2 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 drops blue food dye

Step 1: Mix the cream cheese, blue food dye, and powdered sugar in a small bowl. Drop by teaspoons onto a little plate, making about 9 little "eggs". Place plate in the freezer to harden the balls of cream cheese. When balls are chilled (or when you can't wait any longer, if you're like me!) take them out of the freezer and smooth them into "eggs".

Step 2: Place a thin layer of spinach leaves on a plate, for the "tree" leaves.

Step 3: Put 1/2 cup of grated carrots on the bed of spinach leaves and form into a nest shape.

Step 4: Place 3 eggs into the nest. Top with salad dressing if desired and enjoy! :)

Our robin eggs weren't very smooth. I didn't chill them long enough. Oh well; they were the first things to be eaten off the top of the boys' "salads"! :)

And surprisingly, the cream cheese eggs actually tasted okay with the spinach and carrots. I topped with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. It was good! Of course, this is coming from the girl who likes popcorn cereal, so take it for what it's worth... ;)

And if the birds nests weren't enough, later this morning I made popcorn. The boys filled some empty parmesan cheese containers with popped corn and had a picnic in their bedroom. They were eating out of the lids. This is normally NOT allowed in their bedroom (all food stays at the table!!) but I was feeling generous.

I regretted it later when Eliyahu thought it'd be fun to dump his popcorn on the carpet. Yehoshua, being the sweet boy he is, got the big vacuum cleaner out and cleaned it all up! But now the... uhhh, sweeper.... well, it kinda needs emptied. :)

Another fun kiddie project: Food Creatures. So cute!! :)

Children need purpose and focus. I've been working extra hard lately to constantly channel their energy and efforts towards good things rather than picking at each other.

Above -- I asked the boys to watch the cinnamon roll dough as the bread machine kneaded it. A fun diversion!

One of my resolutions has been to take them outside every single day. Our apartment is certainly sufficient living quarters (900 sq.ft.) but for the children, being stuck indoors day after day just isn't healthy.

Thankfully, the winters here are compatible with lots of outdoor activities! I've been taking the children on long walks nearly every day for the past two weeks and it finally feels as though it's making a difference in their temperaments. :) (Side note: This online pedometer is a fun way to find out just how far we've walked!)

The cinnamon rolls I made from the dough, starting to rise.

My boys (ages 3 and almost-5) also help me around the house -- a lot. With my guidance, they do most of the laundry (except some folding) and picking up toys. They also help with dishes, vacuuming, trash, dusting, and cleaning windows. We always work together (never just by themselves), which cuts down on complaints. ;)

Other activities that fill our days include school work (reading practice, worksheets, coloring, math), reading books, and some free play time. The boys don't take naps, but Ruth (1) does take two naps, each about an hour long.

It makes for a very full day for me, but I find that our days go smoothest when I am giving the children 100% of my attention and am constantly instructing and directing them towards more important, "real life" activities that help us function as a family!

Why do so many apartments include carpeted dining areas?! Personally I think carpet + kids eating = disaster! I'm already not a big fan of carpet at all (hello, germs and allergies!) but under the kitchen table? With children eating??!

Our new place, like all the others we looked at, has carpet in the dining area. Yehoshua (4) is a neat and careful eater, so we've allowed him to eat at the kitchen table. Eliyahu (2) is a little messier and so we moved him back into the high chair and set it in the kitchen (which, thankfully, has linoleum!).

But, Ruth is ready for the high chair now. I'm tired of eating one-handed; after all, she's almost 1! And what about when we have families over who have small children?

We're planning to get this child-size picnic table and set it up in the kitchen. From the measurements, it looks like that would take up most of the kitchen floorspace, so it would be something we got out for each meal, and put away (or took into the living room?) afterward. It would seat several children, though, and I wouldn't have to worry every time Yehoshua had a glass of milk, or a bowl of soup. I also liked the idea of a picnic table since it could be used outside in the distant future when we someday have a small yard. :) (We had a borrowed one in Ohio in our yard.)

Other ideas were to get a large piece of plastic and put it under the kitchen table, but we haven't come across any very affordable large pieces of plastic yet.

Surely some of you are also in the situation of children + carpeted dining room. What's your solution? I'd love to hear!! :)

My little helpers love to open boxes! I try to remember to call for "help" whenever there is a box, bag, or package of something that needs to be opened. My children feel like important helpers, they improve their fine motor skills, and it keeps them from fighting occupied. :)

Joshua drinks tea when he gets up for work, so the boys end up opening lots of tea bags. We also open boxes of cereal, butter, etc...

Recently at Big Lots we found a great deal on some nearly-expired granola snack packs. There were 5 little pouches of granola in each big box -- what a waste of packaging material! I didn't have room on my pantry shelves to store the boxes, so Yehoshua helped me by opening each box and we put the pouches into 2 big plastic buckets. :)

My mom gave us a huge bag of corn on the cob from her garden! I took Yehoshua and Eliyahu outside to help me husk some while Ruth was taking her morning nap. :)

The boys loved helping! Near the end, I suggested to Yehoshua that he use his little toy wagon to haul the husks over to the compost bin.

Our grass is very brown and dry in some places... the good news is that means I haven't needed to mow for several weeks... since we still haven't gotten a lawn mower. :)

I haven't shared a clothesline picture lately, so I took a picture of my lines full of diapers. :) Hanging out laundry is another task that often gets done during Ruth's morning nap. It seems like by the time I'm ready to hang laundry, she's asleep! If not, I just take her out and she sits in the stroller and watches us. :)