Fighting PCOS Naturally

I'm glad that Stress Free Infertility is doing a Furry Friday Friend Link Up. I need some cuteness to brighten my day. I don't have a furbaby, I have a featherbaby. His name is Squeaks, and he's a Green Cheeked Conure (GCC). He's smart as a whip, with a smart-ass attitude to boot :) He won't curl up in your lap like a cat, but he'll sit on your shoulder and snuggle up under your hair. He wears bells as hats, plays dead when he doesn't think he's getting enough attention, and attacks dots of light from laser pens. He cries 'Mama' in his gravelly, almost undecernable voice when I'm not in the house. He gets mad at Daddy if he doesn't get a belly rub every morning. He wakes up on the wrong side of the bed if he doesn't get 12 hours of sleep. He believes he should never have a clean water bowl, and the water faucet is evil - he expresses his opinion quite vocally :) In June 2009, we decided we wanted to get a GCC. With our infertility...

In my circle of friends, cigarettes are a hot button issue. Zim smokes, as does Hubs. Jayxe, however, has no interest in them whatsoever, and I just quit. I have been contemplating introducing the 'Smoke Outside' rule, but until the weather cools down, that would just be mean of me. Zim bought an e-cigarette recently, and it inspired me to do some research into them for Hubs. The electronic cigarette, A.K.A. e-cig, is a small, cigarette-shaped electronic device that emits a nicotine-laced vapor when inhaled. There is no tobacco, tar or carbon monoxide. There is no second-hand smoke. There's no odor! The money that it could potentially save us would be fantastic, also. I spent some time at http://www.safecig.com , a company which claims to have the Best Electronic Cigarette . I do not back up this claim, simply because I have not tried the product. The website itself is fairly simple to navigate, although the main page may seem cluttered by the 'As Seen on' logos...

This week is a little happier than last week :) My sister is finally in town to help us work on our latest venture, making ugly things pretty. Still don't have a company name, but we'll figure it out sooner or later. This is the ringtone I have for my mom and my sister! Here's Sister Sledge with We Are Family . Join the link-up at Amber's blog and check out her giveaway!

Sometimes you just have to have chocolate, right? Last weekend a couple of friends of ours came over to hang out for their birthday. As the end of the day was nearing, I realized that they didn't get any birthday cake. *I'll pause for you to gasp like I did :)* I made sure they liked chocolate, then proceeded to make them a birthday cake! The best part - besides the cake itself - it only takes a couple of minutes to cook, in the MICROWAVE!!! Enjoy drooling over the picture, then make one for yourself! You won't regret it! (I topped this one with chocolate dipped strawberries to make it pretty) Gluten Free Chocolate Cake in A Mug: Ingredients: 4 tbsp almond flour 4 tbsp honey powder (or sugar/powdered sugar substitute) 2 tbsp cocoa powder (the darker the better) 1 egg 3 tbsp milk (I use chocolate hemp milk. almond milk is also really good) 3 tbsp flax oil (various oils can be substituted) 1/2 tsp GF vanilla extract 3 tbsp chocolate chips (optional) Directio...

Stressed out this week. Busy and exhausted. I've been singing Annie to keep myself happy. I like this video, because it's so interesting to see how Annie was cast over the years in various countries. Enjoy! Join the link-up at Amber's blog and checl out her giveaway!

Who knew that taking time off from work could be so exhausting? This week I have been working with my mom to get some stuff made so we can finally start selling. After 3 trips to Joann fabrics and hours in the sewing room, we still have nothing. I often listen to my mom complain about what it's like to live with my grandparents, who are slowly going senile. It's one thing to listen, but to actually be there all day every day and actually watch everything she complains about makes me want to go home and hide in bed. I love my family, but sometimes they can over-react, especially my mom. I've played mediator this week, and I'm not sure I'm doing anything except stressing myself out. But I still have some hope. We received the anti-static bags we've been waiting for, so Hubs and I can tear down the servers taking up so much of my dining room and get them to a friend to sell this weekend. Besides another trip to the fabric store to get ribbon, I don't think we...

Guest post written by Ben Hughes I'm really attached to my kids. They're not even that old yet though and it feels like they're growing up so fast on me! Our oldest one is starting kindergarten this year and I think that she's really going to love it. But it's going to be hard one me, my wife and the younger kids when she's not at the house all the time now. I really went online to find some resources for myself about how to deal with it personally, but then I thought that it might be good to also find some tips on how the kids could deal with it. While I was looking online for that, I ran across the site CLEAR-INTERNET.com . I showed it to my wife and after that we decided to change over our home internet service to it. I did find a bit of parenting advice. I think the best advice that I found was to relax because there are still lots of other firsts to worry about along the way. I thought that was pretty good, so I'm taking it to heart.

I've been a pretty crappy blogger this past week. I figured that I would blog more since I had more time, but that obviously wasn't the case. I started my sabbatical a week ago. I worked out M-Th last week, then did a lot of walking around garage sales with my mom on Friday. The weekend, though, was useless. I didn't do anything. I ate fairly well, if you don't count the pizza we ordered last night, and the nachos at Movie Tavern. I've been pretty mad at myself, because even though I've done a lot of working out, the scale has gone up even more. I've really got to get back on track with my diet and get rid of the Veggie Stix (veggie flavored potato sticks.) Of course I say this as I wait for my GF cinnamon raisin bread to rise so I can stick it in the oven. I didn't do Fat Ass Friday this week because the scale said 243. It just made me want to cry. I decided to wax my chin this week (Excess hair is a major problem with PCOS), and now I have a golf-bal...

Monday was officially the first day of my 2-3 month sabbatical. I decided that I needed to take a break for my health after my employment contract ended. I want to focus on getting more exercise, losing weight, and starting to feel better as a whole. I also decided that I needed to quit smoking. Although I had drastically cut back in the past few months, smoking no more than 3-4 a day, down from 10. I stopped Friday. Here's the plan: Breakfast - Fruity Hemp Protein Smoothie , Supplements Exercise - Up to one hour of exercise, at least 20 minutes. After workout snack - 5 min quinoa flake bake. Flavor depends on the fruit in the house, and the matching recipe from one of my favorite blogs: Healthful Pursuit . These are absolutely fantastic, and so versatile! Lunch - Yummy salad, ingredients dependent on the produce in the house, topped with a gluten-free dressing, Supplements Exercise - Up to one hour of exercise, at least 20 minutes. After workout snack - Nut and grano...