I discovered my Lululemon yoga mat makes a great GREEN backdrop for a photo!
Today I want to do a product review. I purchased these Ezekiel Whole Grain Tortillas last week as a reward for my early rising challenge. The challenge is still going well- I have been getting up between 6-6:20am, with a few slip-ups here and there when I need more sleep. I’m not sure if I will be able to break into the 5’s like I hoped, but I am happy with around 6 anyways.
I was really excited to try these as I have been wondering about them for over a year now.
I had the wrap with a delicious quinoa mixture- 1 cup quinoa, 2 heaping tablespoons hummus, ground pepper, and 1 tablespoon tomato paste. Very delicious! On a bed of baby spinach.
I was a bit disappointed with these wraps because they are quite tough. I was expecting a soft tortilla but these were not soft. They don’t taste bad, but I would prefer to spend my dough on other dough…
I definitely prefer the Ezekiel bread to these. The bread seems more filling to me, even though it is about the same number of calories. Maybe it is because I toast the bread.
Someone mentioned that the Ezekiel English muffins are really good so I think I will try those next!
Celery is like air to me. Very fun to crunch though. That is one thing I love about veggies…so. much. chewing. 
I also made a fun discovery with my tea.
I rarely drink black tea lately, but I used to drink it all the time. Eric drinks it a lot so he has got me drinking some decaf at night time again. I wanted a creamy tea so I tried adding coconut milk. I put about 3 tablespoons of coconut milk into my tea. At first I wasn’t sure about the taste, but as I drank it I really enjoyed it. The tea was so creamy and rich tasting! A definite keeper.
Nothing like a hot cuppa tea on a cold winter’s night…
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This was a question I posed on Twitter tonight and I got some interesting responses:
“For all the ladies out there who want children- do you have a certain age that you want to have your first by?”
I would also like to ask: For those of you who already have children please share your thoughts on your own experience! Did you have them early enough, too late, just right?
Or have you decided that you don’t want to have children?
Any MEN out there who want to chime in? (I’d pretty much die happy if one did…)
I am 22, I love children and I want them. I am in school fulltime and working a fulltime job, so we would like to have kids now but its just not the right time. I feel we should wait until i am out of school and settled into a new career. My brother recently announced that he was going to be a daddy, YAY! That took the pressure off of us to have the first grandchild. While we make all of these plans, god has his very own plan. I think we will start in a year or two unless the good lord decides it should be sooner. LOL!
I agree i like the ezekiel bread a bit more than the tortilla…but now i will have to try the english muffins!!
as for the kids debate, im in my late twenties and while i part of me definitely wants kids, I feel like there is so much more Id like to do (travel, finish school, establish career) before my life is consumed by them! but im def feeling the pressure to enter that stage of my life soon tho!
We’re not planning on kids, but if we were I would want to have them by 35ish.
I love children, but I have never really wanted my own, and I think the world is pretty messed up to be raising kids in it.
Fun question!
I want to have 2 kids and, ideally, I’d like to have them both by the time I’m around 30 (I’m 26 right now)…but, as a (slightly OCD) planner, I’ve learned that you can’t plan everything about life! And sometimes if you try, you can become dissapointed if it doesn’t go as planned…so, whenever I get my 2 kids will be perfect!
:)
How about you??
DH turns 30 in September, and is convinced he’ll turn into a pumpkin if he’s not a father by then.
BUT…
I’m going to be 28 in February, and honestly, am terrified of having kids.
I am scared to DEATH of pregnancy and childbirth and newborns. I have no idea how people handle it. I’m scared, because I’ll need to work through all of that…and I just don’t know how anyone does it.
I know I just need to suck it up and get started, but it’s still scary to me!
DH and I are both only children, and while I’d love to have 2, I’m not even sure about going through the process for 1…so we’ll see how it goes. LOL
I’m only 22 and I’m not even close to wanting kids. I’m hoping it will kick in for about 30 (I definitely don’t want kids till then). I don’t really know if I want kids…but who knows. I just keep thinking how it’s going to wreck my body and then basically my life is over. My life becomes my kids lives. I know that’s very cynical but it’s just how I feel.
I feel the same way.
No kids for me! I can’t imagine having to be tied down like that. It is hard enough with a herd of dogs! The life my husband and I envision is all about traveling, and that might include putting ourselves in fairly dangerous situations with our activism and commitment to the cause. Children wouldn’t fit in at all. And….to be honest, I don’t really like children!
Great question!
I am 31, started at 18 and ended at 28–with 4 children.
My husband and I are thrilled with our family.
We love being young parents and we will have our “alone” time at different stage. I think to each their own, yet also think society norms play a huge part in society how people think they have to wait until they have done certain things. Back in great grandparents days they did not think like that -and still happy—–not saying either is better but we all have to figure out what is best for us and not be affected what others say .
Another “childless by choice” here. I’m 31, been with my husband for over 9 years, and neither of us has ever wanted kids. But we’ve been pretty unconventional about most relationship/family things, not getting married until we’d been living together for 7 years and doing the quick county office “wedding” thing.
I’m now surrounded by friends who are either: 1) wondering when their boyfriends will propose and what the ring will be like; 2) thinking about wedding planning; or 3) talking about getting pregnant. I never have much to say in those conversations, except to laugh and say “yeah, you guys know we didn’t do things this way,” but it’s fine since my friends are all used to me being “different.”
The only thing I can’t stand is being told, “oh, just wait, when you’re older you’ll want kids.” Some people still can’t fathom a women without that instinct, I suppose. Anymore, I just shrug and let them think it.
OMG Jess, you sound exactly like my husband and I! We dated for 10 years & lived together for 8 of those before we eloped (we’re 32 & 34). We’ve never wanted kids either and have never shied away from sharing that information when people ask when we’re having kids. Fortunately our friends and families have been respectful of our decision, but I still get the “wait till you’re older comment” from the odd person outside the family. What really drives me bonkers is the response from the medical community. My husband has been asking his doctor for a vasectomy for years now, and every time the answer is “come back in a few years”…then…”come back when you’re married”…then…”wait till you’ve been maried a few years.” His doc even suggested that he shouldn’t get snipped just in case things don’t work out between us – after being together for almost 13 years now! I have not been able to find a physician who would tie my tubes either…I understand they’re trying to cover their own butts, but at this point I’m beginning to feel like we are being discriminated against & being denied the medical care we’re asking for!
I’ve been getting those comments since my early twenties, and it’s so tiresome! I’m almost 31 and my boyfriend is 29. We have been together for almost 4 years and have no plans to get married. People think we’re insane, but I love our relationship and wouldn’t change it for anything. I’m still undecided about wanting kids, but if the day comes that we do, and we can, I’m fine with that. I really don’t like to set limits or deadlines on my life.
And Jen, I totally think you’re being discriminated against by your physicians. I think it’s hypocritical that women are sometimes considered too ‘old’ to be having children in their thirties, but too ‘young’ to make decisions about their reproductive health. Thanks to you both for posting!
The women in my family tend to have children later in life…grandmother – 40, mother – 35, sister – 35. I think it is brilliant b/c you have a chance to live your life for you through your 20’s and some of your 30’s.
I personally don’t want to have children. I am 33 and have never had the desire to have children. Maybe someday the motherly instinct will kick in, but I’m not sweating it…
Good luck!
well if you ask my fiancee, he wants to be done having kids by the time we’re 30 (I’m 23, he’s 24). to that i say wtf?! haha. i am just letting things run their course – children will happen eventually. he should be glad i’m even considering kids at this point… i used to be a dog-only person :)
we just had a friend announce she’s pregnant, and i freaked a little bit. i’m not ready to handle this whole baby-thing yet!!!
I’m split on this one. On the one hand, I’d love to start having kids before I’m 30 and be all done by the time I’m 35. On the other, I’d like to start after 30 and be done by 35. Then again, I could see myself having kids in my late 30s. But I’m really torn between the first two.
I’m not fussed, though, as there’s no baby-daddy on the horizon, so it’s no biggie.
Yet.
Wow! What a HOT topic! This has definitely been a hot topic for my husband and me for the past few months. I’ll be 29 in September and the plan, or at least my plan, is to start thinking about it next summer… but is that too late?? How is one to know?
A lot of people I talk to say that you are never “ready” for it. You will never have enough money, never have traveled enough, never have had enough fun, so you just kind of have to jump in and do it.
My biggest reservations come from seeing other moms. I know they love their babies, but they so often look so frazzled and stressed! I am already so frazzled and stressed!
My mom had me at 19 and I remember how stressed she always seemed. She didn’t ever (and still doesn’t) do anything for herself. It was always for the kids. My parents were very young when they had kids. They had five kids by the time they were 34! This was not always very easy for them.
I’m also very, very afraid of what it will do to my body. I work very hard to stay fit. I want a 6 pack before I have a baby bump!
I know this sounds superficial and selfish, but there are just so many things I am not quite ready to give up. I want the freedom to workout when I want to, to rest when I want to, to go to happy hours and out with friends when I want to. I also really want 8 hours of sleep at night!
So, as you can tell from this very long, drawn out comment. I have no idea when the right time to start a family is. For now, I am happy with raising my dogs! ;o)
Frazzle and stressed. Yes — I have seen that.
But what I recall from my Mom (and Dad) was their entire focus was on seizing the moment and having fun. They lived their life like that before me and my brother (they were married 8 years before my brother, 10 years when they had me), and they lived their life after having the two of us. I’ve always been impressed with the two of them. They traveled the world without us and with us on a shoe-string budget, and are still going strong now (my Mom went back and got her PhD when she was 50, and now teaches full-time — she always says that you can’t view life as stopping — just new opportunities around the corner).
This gives me perspective that life does NOT stop with kids. Change, yes. Stop, never.
I’m so flip flop on this issue! One minute I think NO WAY! The next I think I’m ready today!!! Yikes!
I always had the plan in my head that I would be with someone for 3 years prior to being married at 25, pregnant by 26, giving birth by 27… second child by 30…. happy forever and ever…
BOY did those plans not pan out very well! LOL
I just got out of a 5 year relationship… and I am now 24… guess I will have to reschedule life… time to start the quest over!
Ooooo have you got babies on the brain?? Or perhaps Eric does… lol?
I would like to start a family sometime around my early 30’s…preferably the 30-32. I want to make sure that I have a stable job and home so that I can provide nothing but the best situation for my family. My parents are both teachers, but they waited till they saved up and were financially stable to have my sister and I so that they could provide for us without any problems.
Now, I am not saying I am going to give my kids everything they want and spoil them…thats not what my parents did and I don’t plan on doing that for my future children either. I want my kids to earn what they get (with a few side gifts every now and then) but for the most part I want to instill in them the same work ethic, morals, and determination that my parents instilled in me.
I married my high school sweetheart at 18. Had our first child at 20, second at 21 and third at 23. Now I’m 30 and I wouldn’t have changed a thing. All my friends are just now starting and I am sooo glad to be where I am in parenthood. Hubby and I are going to be only 41 when our youngest graduates high school. We both were able to finish our undergrad and get great carrers going, the only thing we haven’t done too much of is travel. That will come soon. I’m working on my master’s right now, so all in good time.
We are grappling with this questions now in trying to make plans for the future. I’m almost 28 and would like to start trying by the time I’m 30. I think that is a good age, but am always nervous that maybe I should start now b/c you never know when it comes to fertility.
Until my niece was born, I never wanted children, but as another reader said, something clicked. I’m 26, not married, but in a relationship of almost 3 years. I do want kids, but I’m not exactly in a rush. It’s not the right time right now, but I would welcome whatever happens. I’d like to have my first by 30, but in to my 30s is fine!
i have one daughter. I had her when i was 21….for ME that was way too early…i feel like we have grown up together. Don’t get me wrong i love every minute with her and wouldn’t take her back for anything, but for young girls out there I want to preach…LIVE YOUR LIFE FIRST! I”m not saying your life ends with childern but your priorities definitely change!
Have any of you been watching MTV’s Teen mom? I want to croak every time i see this show come on!! it fills me with so much anger….why are there no shows about young women DOING THINGS?? There are so many girls out there accomplishing things and doing stuff for the community and their careers…why are there no shows about that?
I had my first child when I was 23 and my second when I was 26. We’ll probably have one more in a couple of years. I’ll be 30. This has been perfect for us. I’m guessing you’ll find from the responses that every person and situation is different. There is no one plan fits all. Glad for that!