Coming follow us to the new Arlene Pellicane blog.  Bookmark it now before you forget!    Every day this month, I’ll be blogging with a tip from my book 31 Days to a Younger You:  No Surgery, No Diets, No Kidding. I look forward to chatting more on the new blog!

Thank you so much moms for reading this blog and making it special!  Here’s a quick pictorial stroll down memory lane!

Baby Lucy went to the snow for the first time this Christmas!  We went up the aerial tram in Palm Springs to 2 feet of beautiful snow.  Lucy was happy sometimes as you can see.  But then she was hating life (crying HARD, as if to say “I’m trapped in this snowsuit, I can’t find my hands, and this white stuff is cold!).

She cried and cried, then finally fell asleep face down in this sled.  Hilarious.  I was so relieved.  We sledded with Ethan and Noelle while Lucy slept peacefully.  Sometimes people would walk by and it was so funny to see them do a double take – hey, there’s a baby in that sled!

Here she is waking up…

I want to remind you that you may wake up one day in January and wonder, what happened to that Losing Weight After Baby blog?

We’re moving…so follow Lucy over to the new Arlene Pellicane blog.

Happy New Year friends!

Check out more pics and the story at my new blog!

Look, it’s Minnie Mouse!

Well, it’s really Noelle celebrating her 4th birthday at Disneyland with her little sister Lucy.  But I like her mouse impression!  My girls are growing up as you can see, and my blog is growing up too.

In the New Year, this Losing Weight After Baby blog will come to a close BUT I will continue blogging at a new blog.  I’ll still write about parenting, health, and the merits of dark chocolate but the blog is going to grow alongside our kids.  It won’t only be about new babies, we’ll be talking about looking and feeling younger from the inside out.  That’s something we all want to do as moms!

So take a moment to bookmark my new blog and we’ll keep chatting in the New Year!

I have a friend who is a single mom with three young boys.  When I’m tired at the end of the day with my three, sometimes I think of her and how she has to parent alone.  I have my husband to divide duties with, but what about the single mom who doesn’t have anyone to relieve her for just a few minutes when she’s exhausted?  Phew, I feel for her!

Well now there’s a book to encourage single moms.  It’s written by Teresa Whitehurst and titled God Loves Single Moms. There’s an inventory in the beginning of the book that will help moms evaluate where they are in the different areas of life:  physical and emotional health, finances, relationships, organization, career, etc.  Then you do an inventory for your child(ren).  The book is all about learning how to breathe more health into your family.  Whitehurst writes from her own experience and is the encouraging voice of a new friend.

If you’re a single mom, this is a great book to encourage you and to move you forward into the life you dream about for you and your kids.  It answers tough questions about divorce, fatigue, loneliness, and restoring faith in your children.

God Loves Single Moms is available wherever fine books are sold.  Thank you Revell for a copy to review!

She cries, bears down, her legs get stiff as a board, it’s pathetic!  We have even been able to successfully take her to the toilet since it’s so obvious when she’s trying to go to the bathroom.  What to do?  I’ve worked on her diet (taking out anything like white bread, making sure she gets lots of vegetables).

I share what our pediatrician recommended on my Losing Weight After Baby podcast.  Our doc recommended cutting back on the milk.  We were giving her 4 feedings of about 7 ounces each, and the doctor suggested cutting that back to about 16-18 ounces and giving her water instead to make up the difference.  The doctor also suggested Miralax which is a powder to help bring water into the stool for easier passage (forgive the puns).

Hope these suggestions help you a bit if your baby faces the same, um, issues.  Lucy is getting a little better, but still is crying a lot when she poos.

More about the podcast…the Losing Weight After Baby podcast will soon be coming to an end. After 3 years of podcasting, my babies are growing up!  My last podcast will be in December.  I hope you will follow me to an all new podcast that will focus on looking and feeling younger!  Which just happens to be the topic of my book coming out in January, 31 Days to a Younger You:  No Surgery, No Diets, No Kidding.

Leeana is a Navy wife and she has written an amazing book called Found Art:  Discovering Beauty in Foreign Places. In honor of Veteran’s Day, I hope you enjoy this excerpt from Found Art:

The war has asked an impossible amount from so many. It has asked us to relinquish husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, mothers, and fathers. It has asked us to sit and listen to the many voices who comment so knowingly on a life they have never experienced. It has asked us to come to terms with the costs associated with such an enormous cause, and for some, it has been an inestimable cost. Beyond all other burdens, the war has left us with the inordinate task of grieving the death of our youth. This is the most unnatural and incomprehensible grief to bear.

Where is God in such loss? Where is God while the world is splitting at the seams? I have shaken my fist at him a time or two and asked him what he could possibly be thinking.

I have watched young widows grieve, and such tragedy is just about the worst thing to witness in this world. I have seen soldiers, sailors, and Marines weep bitterly for the loss of their brothers and sisters in combat. I have shared a sidewalk with a young uniformed boy one week and read about his death the next I have sat in the stabbing fear of possible loss myself. But I have never stopped believing that God was there. I cannot perfectly reconcile the horrible injustice in this world with the love of God. I don’t have the right answer to such a dilemma that would, once and for all, quiet such questions.

Here’s what I do know: Despite their grief, I have watched young widows survive. Despite their anger, I have watched soldiers heal with time. Despite my fear, I trust again. These are the places where I see God. We are able to go on—not in the ways we might have if this war would have never happened, but we are able to love again and trust again and believe again and breathe again. That is God, for I know I am incapable of these mighty efforts on my own.

I have so few answers when it comes to the theology of war. Most days, I just feel full of sadness and then rage. I hate that our world is so terribly messed up, and it seems as though the innocent and the young are constantly paying the price. In the face of the world’s cruelties—and they are plenty and varied and ever upsetting—I will choose to hate the injustice. I will choose to look for God, even if he is hiding in the smallest fold or the slightest crease, because I know in the very deepest parts of me, undoubtedly, he is there.

The following excerpt was taken from Found Art: Discovering Beauty in Foreign Places (Zondervan) by Leeana Tankersley. Leeana is a Navy SEAL wife, and her book chronicles the year she and her husband lived in the Middle East during the war in Iraq. Follow Leeana at www.gypsyink.com.

We had a great time at the local pumpkin station.  Lucy went on her first train ride – she seemed to like it

I’m always on the hunt for a quick, easy, healthy finger food to feed Lucy.  She loves feeding herself now which is great.  My latest discovery…she likes veggie burgers!  I was making one for myself and realized, this would be yummy for Lucy.  All sorts of veggies in each bite and I could cut it up and serve it so easily to her.

It’s a hit!  So the next time I go to Costco, I will be getting more of these veggie burgers.  (I like to eat them wrapped in lettuce, with mayo and curry powder mixed together).