Lightweight Strollers are Perfect for Living in the City

When my children were very young, we lived in a small apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The apartment was lovely; there were high ceilings, polished wood floors, and glass doors that opened onto a terrace with a green park bench and an ornate cast iron railing. The only thing lacking in our humble abode was space. My husband and I always had to be creative about how we utilized any available room.

There was one bedroom so I painted the wall that the trundle bed and crib hugged a warm muted sunflower yellow to signify that this part of the room was theirs. Opposite sides of the bedroom were decorated completely differently; one side for adults and one side for children.

We also had to be creative about storage. Necessities such as strollers were sometimes hard to store. Luckily, when my youngest was a toddler, I was able to downsize to just a Valco Baby lightweight stroller. The stroller was easily compacted and took up very little storage space. I kept it in the corner of our front hall closet, where it fit nicely.

I loved the lightweight stroller because it was so easy to handle. I could easily lift the stroller with my son in it without any assistance, and carry them up or down the stairs that led to our apartment building.

There are so many benefits to lightweight strollers. They are easy to maneuver, easy to store and easy to transport. And, with a Valco Baby stroller, I knew I was using a product with which I could entrust my children.

Graco Offers A Stroller for Any Occasion

I have always been a very active person, and after having my son, I wanted to maintain that lifestyle and find a way to include him in my morning exercise routine. I purchased a jogging stroller so that I could maximize my fitness during our morning strolls around the neighborhood.

 With my Graco FastAction Fold Jogging Stroller, I can keep a fast walking or light jogging pace without jostling my son. Using the stroller provides me with an extensive workout since I am also exerting energy from pushing it. He also seems to enjoy the brisk clip. In fact, now he gets excited when he sees me readying the stroller; he knows it means that mommy and he are going to the park!

 Although the jogging stroller is ideal for our 8 am park excursions, it does not fare as well in other locations, which is why I also have a lightweight stroller. This baby stroller is perfect for running errands with my child in crowded stores or maneuvering through crowded Manhattan streets during rush hour. The stroller is also really easy to transport, so I may easily throw it in the trunk of the car when we go visit my parents in the suburbs.

Having different strollers allows me to both maintain my pre-child routine and incorporate my son into it. We are thus able to have “mommy and me” wherever we go.

Learn more about stroller, you can check this website

Media Monday: God vs. Media

So each week I'm going to focus on one area of my life that I think the media is affecting me. I started with the topic that I think should come first.

God VS. Media

Before I started my blog and reading other blogs the media I used most was TV (not cable but Netflix) and Facebook. I know that about 1 1/2 years ago that Facebook was where I spent the majority of my time. Farmville, Farm Town, Cafe World. I was struggling to get use to the fact of having a little one around and being home all day without adult interaction. Then there was TV. I could just turn it on and find a movie or TV series that I wanted to watch and I could sit there for hours. At this point in my life Media was winning without a doubt and my life showed it. 

I was down (not really depressed just not really sure what to do with myself and my day). Rex was a great baby and would just entertain himself for hours without needing me except for eating and diaper changes. He really didn't seem to care whether mommy played with him or not. I started to feel more and more convicted about the time that I was wasting on nothing. 

I still didn't invest time with God but I started to do other things. I started enjoying more time with Rex. I found different mom's groups and tried them out and ended up starting my own group that is faith based because that's what God wanted me to do (I was trying to get out of it by finding another group but that wasn't going to happen). In this new group I started feeling that I needed to strengthen my relationship with God and started a Bible study with the other moms and tried to include alone time with God daily that wasn't included in my Bible study (I'm still struggling to make this work). I started praying more, by myself, over my husband (although he doesn't know it), and out loud with other women (which is something I'm not comfortable doing at all). 

I went to a Women At the Cross weekend and healed some deep hurts from my past thanks to God and His amazing power. More and more God was winning over my Media. I still was watching to much TV but I was at least getting better and having some time with God. Then I started this blog and felt the urge to get it up and running and find other blogs to follow and try and get more people to follow my blog. I wanted to write about things that were interesting to people but I wanted to make sure to be real. I'm not on to put on a fake mask, to put on a "show" to be liked. What you see is what you get. And slowly the media started to pull me in again. I started struggling with staying at home all the time and it got worse when we became a one car family because now I'm really confined to my house unless I walk or have a friend willing to pick Rex and I up. I kept getting lost in reading other peoples blogs and enjoying what I was reading but I have to say that I found so many great blogs that are full of God's love and Word that I started to feel inspired. I started wanting more alone time with God and I wanted to read more from these wonderful ladies and I wanted to inspire other women like these ladies were for me!

Then Media Monday's came along and I decided that this was a great time to see who is winning and I'm have to say that GOD is winning (most days)! If I'm spending to much time on the computer than someone's post convicts me and I get off and get other things done. God has taken my favorite channel from the little bit of cable channels we have so that way I won't be sucked into watching TV in the afternoon (I will admit I was pretty mad and almost called the cable company but then I remembered that I had been praying to God to help me not want to watch TV so I just thanked God and moved on). 

I have done pretty good this week with my media and I'm getting less and less time here and investing the time I do take to read what I find important and I share what I think is important and what will help myself and others.

Next week I will be talking about Media and My Marriage and the struggles that are wrapped all around that. I'm going to set some personal goals and work to achieve them and I will let you know how I do.

I would suggest taking a serious look at how much media is taking away from you and your relationship with God. It was interesting for me to look back and see the amazing changes He has made in my life.


This weeks GOALS on Media and Marriage

1. Go to bed when the hubs goes to bed (or no later than 9pm)
2. Get up with him in the morning and make him breakfast (even if its just toast) and make sure he gets out the door on time and with everything he needs. 
3. This extra morning time with be my time. I can choose to work out or read blogs or clean. 
4. I'm going to ask my hubby to take over bedtime. I'm going to take this time to go for a walk and get some exercise and I'm going to invite friends along with me.
5. I'm going to get Rex up every morning by 8 so that when 8 pm comes around he is ready for bed.

So there they are. I will let you know next Monday how I do! Wish me luck!

Homeschooling Goals

have been trying to figure out how to get started on the whole idea of homeschooling. Being the first in my immediate family to do this, not feeling like I'm really capable of it, and thinking about all the work that is ahead of me just keeps me wanting to forget that its going to be time before I know it.

Rex just turned 2 in March and I need to get started at least thinking and researching all the different types of homeschooling and deciding which is the best for us to at least start out trying. Not to mention the fact that he needs to start learning now! He loves discovering things and play learning in so many ways and I know that I need to tap into that now and get started.

So in knowing that here are some of my personal goals to make it not so overwhelming.

1. I'm going to write out why homeschooling is important to me and talk to the hubs about why he wants me to homeschool and I'm going to write out a vision statement for our family that we can review and revise as needed (at least each year make sure it is still working for us).
2. I'm going to make sure that I'm setting good examples for Rex by reading more books and getting dirty with him while exploring things that are interesting to him. I want to show him that Mommy doesn't know everything but we can learn and figure it out together. 
3. I'm going to start praying about homeschooling. I know I'm suppose to do it but I really need direction and comfort that I'm able to do it and I know that God will provide that for me.
4. I'm going to make sure that I take every opportunity I can to teach Rex things. Whether it be while I'm cleaning or cooking or playing at the park. I want to make sure that I'm doing everything I can to make everyday moments teachable ones.
5. Finally I'm going to relax and not stress about it. Homeschooling shouldn't be stressful. It should be fun! That's what I intend to make it!

Those are my simple goals that I want to complete by the end of the summer so we can get started on our pre-homeschooling this fall. Wish me luck and feel free to help me out! Give me ideas, links, your favorite places that might help me out!

Family Friday: Family Schedule

Our family schedule seems to be so different from a lot people I know. With the hubs working (including drive time) about 12 hours a day it makes our schedule different or he would never see Rex. So here it is...


6:00 or 6:30 the hubs leaves for work.
8:30 Rex and I get up (bath time if none the night before)
9:00 Cook and Eat Breakfast
9:30 Leave for mom's group activity several times a week OR play time while Mommy cleans
12:00 Cook and Eat Lunch
1:30 Nap time for Rex, Bible time for Mommy (most days)
2:30 Rex is up. Watch Letter Factory (He's very cranky when he wakes up so he gets a movie to allow more wake up time before playing.
3:00 Play time/Story time/Cleaning together time 
6:00 or 6:30 The hubs heads home and I start dinner.
7:00 or 7:30 We eat dinner
7:30 Family Play Time
8:30 Start Bedtime Routine 
     Bath time if we had a really dirty day or he gets in the morning
     P.J.'s
     Running (he has so much energy still that he just does laps in his room)
     Story time
     Prayers
     Kisses, music on, lights out!
9:00 Bedtime for Daddy
10:00/11:00 Bedtime for Mommy


There are a few things I working on changing but haven't got there yet. Like I want to go to bed earlier so I can get up when the Hubs leaves for work but I'm a night owl and it's going to take a couple of weeks to get adjusted to that. When I finally make these changes I will be able to get more cleaning done before Rex gets up and maybe even get back into my workout program in the morning and possibly even have more alone time with God. That would be great.


Does your family schedule differ from ours? How? Does it work for you or do you need to make changes? I'd love to hear your thoughts too!