Stay at home momma with some cash on the side.

I really prefer the term Domestic Engineer instead of Stay at Home Momma. I feel like SAHM gets a bad rap. Not to mention, as much as I stay at home, there are many things outside the home I do.

But I digress.

If you know me, you probably would call me hippy or granola. If it is natural, I am all in.

I was introduced to Shaklee by a friend from Illinois who I knew a long time ago. She gave me a sample of this super sweet non-toxic cleaner called H2. And I tried it. It was rad (see blog post). So because it was so rad I started doing some research on the company. And boy, it was a life changer for this DE.

As I did the research, followed up by lots of questions to my friend I found out that things like allergies, asthma, infertiity, cancer and other various diseases have been linked to toxins in our environment. Simply changing the cleaners in  your home can have a huge impact on not only your health but your families.

With my mom being a nurse I have always been big into prevention. I began realizing that traditional medicine (while it does have its place) only puts a band-aid on symptoms and does not treat the real reason why you have the symptoms you do. I was sick of taking my prescription meds for my migraines that made me feel like I wasn't myself and I constantly had the same question over and over: How can I feel healthy and continue to prevent illness in a safe and NATURAL way, especially for my daughter? Shaklee was my answer.


The reason why I do what I do: this cutie.

I found taking the toxins out of my home and switching to Shaklee's Get Clean line begin to reduce my migraines. Adding my multivitamins with Vitalizer and adding a natural anti-inflammatory and natural anti-histamine of Alfalfa helped even more. When I feel like I am getting sick I take Defend and Resist Complex or Nutriferon and I feel better faster than I would have before! I found I loved the company and it's amazing products so much I decided to work for Shaklee.

Working with Shaklee not only helps my own families health, but I get to continue to stay at home with my daughter Hayden. I love being a Domestic Engineer and I love working for Shaklee. With Shaklee, I get to do both because I can work wherever and whenever. I can work when she is in her johnny jump up playing, or at night when she falls asleep and I am in my comfy clothes! My team is an amazing support system of other moms including a nurse and nutritionist and we are all in constant communication while consulting with clients. I love how easy it has been to fit Shaklee into my daily schedule AND I get to provide for my families financial goals of the future. Most of all, I love being to help other families in their journey to health and wellness.

Interested in being a Domestic Engineer and working for Shaklee on the side? Email me schlipf@gmail.com.

Want to get it on these bodacious natural and safe products? Click on the Shop Shaklee link up top. For more info you can email me as well!

Toodle-loo!

Too cool for school.

I actually love school. I am a nerd for life. If I could get more degrees, I totally would! But the whole point of the title is that...

Moms are cool. So cool.

Here is the thing about being a mom. We can get away with anything. No, I am not talking about speeding tickets here (actually, pretty sure it is possible to get away with that as well, as long as there is a crying/pooping kid in the vehicle). I am talking about how awesomely different we are.

Because as a mom, we can show up things with spit up on our shirts, in our pajamas, and it's like, whatever, shes a mom. Poop on your white cardigan? No big thing, you are a mom! Did you wear that outfit yesterday? Who cares!

My ultimate favorite about being a cool mom is peoples reaction when I put makeup on. "Wooooooooowwwww, you look greeeeaaat!!!" (as opposed to when I normally look raccoon eyed and haggard? Yeah, its true). It is like all the sudden I am a supermodel! But I know I am not, it is just that everyone is used to staring at those epic dark circles.

Other reasons why moms are cool:

We can multi task 4 different things at once, including nursing a baby while making your breakfast while occupying your toddler and talking on the phone with your hubster.

We don't need to take a shower every day and we figure out ways to do it without smelling funny.

We can change  poop explosion diapers with only one wipe left.

We really only need one arm and we can do anything.

We know how to fix a boo boo without a band aid.

We teach our children how to read, how to walk, how to run, how to love, how to help, how to make change in our world....

An there is more where that came from.

So remember moms, you are cool AND you are making a difference in your child's life. So keep on keepin on! GO MOMS!

Veterans Day

Freedom is not free.

In 2009, I married a United States Marine. My friends thought it was romantic, and he definitely looked handsome in his uniform, but my life changed then and there: not just because I was getting married, but because I married a Marine.

Everything quickly flip flopped in my life. I was suddenly extremely aware of the sacrifice that our military men and women made. How heartwrenching it was to miss someone that was gone for months, or even a year. Mothers and fathers missing the birth of their child. How precious every little second was. How hard these men and women worked.

And for this, I am thankful. These people are willing to die to keep us safe.

And it doesn't end on the battlefield, or in the fleet. In May, the unemployment rate for young veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan was 12.7% while the national unemployment rate was just at 8.2%. When these men and women fight for us then leave active duty, they have to fight for themselves just to get a job.

I urge you to take one second of your day today and any day to thank a veteran. Call them. Write them. Clap for them in the airport. Send a random package. Because it means more to them than you know.

I also want to give a shout out to my favorite charity, Wounded Warrior Project. It is an amazing charity that has grown throughout the years, and to be honest, most wounded warriors to not recieve the proper aid and care they need from the government, and WWP has done some AMAZING things for these men and women. As WWP says , the greatest casualty is being forgotten. Let us never forget these men and women.

And if you are a servicemember reading this post. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU.

Ode to 3 am.

3 am and I know each other really well.

We have watched Downton Abbey together, ate mass amounts of food together, surfed the net, read books, and while 3 am might enjoy me, I am not so much into 3 am.

I have experimented with everything in order to get Hayden to sleep through the night. You mention it I have tried it- switch from this diaper to that diaper, move this feeding to that feeding, give her mass amounts of oatmeal to fill her up right before bed, or even, I know, let's keep her up alllll day, and she will FOR SURE sleep through the night, right? Nope.

If you are a mama, I know most likely you feel me. You have done it, you are doing it. Still the wake ups, still the neediness. 8 months into it and the only sleeping through the night is a complete fluke.

I have just faced it. 3 am needs to be something I enjoy. Time to embrace it. Because several months from now, when my daughter begins wean, I will want 3 am back. And when she finally is fully weaned, I will whine for 3 am back. And when she is 18, I will cry for 3 am back.

Every moment with your kiddo is an awesome moment, even the 3 am ones. Just keepin it real, one day at  a time.

So 3 am, I'm cool with you.

Top 10 items you DON'T NEED as a new parent

Ever feel overwhelemed as a new parent when you walk into those baby stores? I sure did. As a new parent, I wish I knew what we didn't need. So, because I found out the hard way, here is a list of the top 10 things you don't need for a baby as a new parent.

10.  Baby powder: Still not quite sure what it is used for.

9. Wipe warmer: Nobody warms up my toilet paper...

8. Bottle Warmer: Hot water and a bowl works just fine.

7. Shoes: Cute, not functional. I am just starting to put shoes on our daughter now that she is 8 months old.

6. Robes:Too many changes- baby is going straight from bathtub to towel.

5. Baby bathtub: Two words- kitchen sink.

4. Baby Bullet: A blender or food processor works just fine. Plus, your baby bullet most likely will break anyways.

3. LOTS of toys: Let's be honest folks, half of your childs life you are going to get them epic toy items and they are going to have more fun playing with the cardboard box it came in. Toys are great, but you don't need a ton.

2. Baby oil : still have not used it. It is a great eye makeup remover though!

1. Stroller: Ah yes, the stroller. The most complicated of them all. Ours was a gift and as much as I absolutely love it (it's a jogger), we use it the least of all or our baby items. They are big and bulky and it is just way more functional to have our daughter in a front carrier. So, if you are on a baby budget, I say eliminate the stroller unless you have multiples.

Remember mommas, I am just on a need vs want system. Even though we didn't need the stroller, I still wanted it anyways and I jog with it for sure. But if it wasn't a gift, we probably wouldn't have had it in the budget.

The poop scoop: addendum

I thought I would add a little more about cloth diapers to those of you who are curious about taking the dive.

There are so many cloth diapers, so where do you start? To be honest with you , I'm an instant-gratification-amazon-junkie. A mom told me about fuzzibunz and I went to amazon for some one click shopping, put them in my cart and was ready to go. But then, my mother stopped me....

Mom: What are you doing?

Me: Investing in cloth diapers.

Mom: That's great, but what are you doing?

Me: Buying them on Amazon.

Mom: Weeelll, how do you know they will fit?

Me: Uuuuuummmmmm....

Mom: Maybe you should wait until we find a store that sells them.

Me: But mooooom, I want them noooooowww.

Mom: You should wait.

Me: Ok....

So instead of ordering on Amazon I decided I would find out where these things were sold. Some are sold online, some in stores. I found a specific cloth diapering store when I was staying in Iowa and we ventured on.  And I am so happy we did, because I got a full tutorial on cloth diapering.

You see, not all babies are made the same, some are small, some are big, some wide, some long. So it really helps to know what kind of baby you have and what kind of diaper you need on them.

When I checked out fuzzibunz at the cloth diapering store they looked ginormous. You see, Hayden is a banana baby, and at that point she was at about the second to fifth percentile. The kid eats and eats and just poops it out! If I bought her those Fuzzibunz, she would have leaked out of them- they were to wide for her long and lean frame. Good thing I had options!

Option 1: Go the traditional route, or as I call it, the old school way- buy the diapers according to weight, get diaper pins which are now called snappi, and a plastic cover. This usually is the cheapest.

Option 2: Bum Genius diapers- closest diapers for a skinny baby i could find. The one I purchased is a one size so it is adjustable from 8-35 lbs.

Option 3: Homemade. The ones I have are also one size which is awesome. These are my favorite!

These options, are for a long and lean baby. I have lots of issues with my daughter because she is very skinny, so she does not fill out much. The traditional route or homemade ones have been the best for us. I also prefer diapers with buttons because I despise velcro. Whenever I throw anything with velcro in the washer or dryer it is a disaster

Taking care of the dirty diapers:

If it is a breastfed only diaper, I either throw it in a bucket or directly in the wash machine. If solids have been introduced I dump that poop in the toilet, then the diaper goes into bucket or wash machine. I fill the bucket with standing water and then add Shaklee's H2 all purpose cleaner or Shaklee's Basic G which keeps anything from smelling funky.

When my load is ready I have all my diapers in the wash machine. I do a rinse only load in cold water first to make sure all the poop is gone and does not stain. Then the wash load with the detergent in hot warm.

When you go to wash your diapers you need to have a natural, non toxic, fragrence free detergent. It is not only better for your baby and the earth, but better for the diaper. I use Shaklee's fresh laundry concentrate. It is cheaper than Tide and it does 224 loads! If you need to get stains out try Shaklee's Nature bright laundry booster and stain remover. This is also natural and will not harm your baby nor your diapers.

And thats it. A lot of people hang dry their cloth diapers because it helps preserve the diaper but I really don't have the time of day for that, especially since I live in a humid climate. If you can find a cloth diapering store near you I encourage you to try it out!

Diaper brands:
Econobum
Fuzzibunz
Bumgenious
Sunbaby
G diaper
GroVia
Rumperooz
Thirsties
Happy Heiny

and tons more!

Always here to answer any questions!

The poop scoop.

Today I am going to write about poop. Yes, I said it, poop. That dirty four letter word.  I'm choosing to write about this subject because while at most, I think it's hilarious; it truly rules my life.

Ok mommas, raise your hand if you think your child's pooping runs your life just a tad. No? Really!?!?! C'mon......

Like, you know, when you don't want to leave yet because your child hasn't pooped yet and you don't want them to blast out in the carseat for fear of leakage? Or you are on your way out the door and they poop at that exact moment and you know you can't leave them in the poop because the diaper won't hold anymore. Or the all time favorite, the blast out onto the wall while you are all by yourself and need both hands to clean it up, but your kid is on the changing table.

See?

I'm going to be honest, from the day we brought home our little poop monster until she was about 4 months old I attempted to figure out how poop could rule over me a little less. How does such a petite lil girl get her bowel movement from her bottom all the way upher right arm? How was that possible?! How was it that every time I put her in the bouncer, the bouncer became KIA? I knew there had to be SOME way to keep the poop IN the diaper!


That is when I decided to experiment with cloth diapers. For most families, cloth diapers seem ultra gross and scary, but I am going to be honest, that is a common misconception. I have actually delt with more gross poop situations in disposables than cloth. When I switched over to cloth it would keep the poop in, and soak it up. Total awesomeness. The laundry may seem scary to some, but if you have enough diapers, you really only do maybe one extra load.


And from one fashionista to another, they are cute! Hayden has diapers in Dr Suess prints or pretty in pink to match her outfits.

Oh yeah, we spend 25 dollars a month on our water bill, and thats all the money that goes to diapers!

So if you are trying to keep the poop explosions from exploding out the sides and up the stomach, I vote cloth, it will save you time and grant you sanity.