Sub-Urban Living 101 - Toddlers in School - Please Help

So much can change in over 3 years. A boy becomes a man or in my case, a baby becomes a toddler! What happened to the  late night breast feeding sessions and cloth diaper postings! Oh, what ever happen to the good ol' days. Now my son is school age and attends school. I had a plethora of anxiety well before the first day of school. Earlier this year he had a "not so positive" school experience where he experienced bullying at the age of 3! In my son's case, he stood up for himself and as a result, we made the choice to put him in a more structured program. Now, he is happily adjusting to the strict rules and regulations of school! Have any other parents gone through this same type of anxiety... How the hell do you cope??? 

Sub-Urban Living 101 - My journey to passive income....

Has anyone from the third planet from the sun heard of the term "passive income?" Well, well, well. over the next few blog posts, I will share my journey diving in head first... with no life jacket into the cesspool of PASSIVE INCOME. Over the past few days, I have been talking to my P.I.C. (partner in crime) about the idea. I am have been bombarded with information from underground passive income wealthy people like Pat Flynn (http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/) and listened to a pre-recorded webinar from clickbank.com. I am not promoting either sites but I wanted to share the info so you can come up with your own opinion.  I would like to know what are people's thoughts on the idea. 

CUBISM - Why I Heart Re-Purposed Jewelry

A long time ago (two years or so) in a land far far away (Long Island) I purchased a cube necklace at Accessories. I wore it a total of three times when I accidentally attempted to pick something off the floor and it broke! Oh the horror. Since then, it has been hanging off the doorknob of my closet. I have shown it no love or attention until yesterday. Then all of a sudden...Eureka, it came to me. Re-purpose it! So I listened to the voice in my head and did just that. I took some pliers, opened the small rings that connected the cube to the length of the necklace and voila, a brand new (yet old) cube ring. Then, I went on Esty.com and came across a cube ring (mine is cooler and FREE) but no longer had a need for splurge thanks to the creative fabrics in my DNA I now have a great new ring! Go me!

My re-purposed ring - $FREE$

Ring on Esty.com - $248 USD 

Breaded Tilapia and Garlic Rub Shrimp Recipe

Peche rule! That is why I love cooking and consuming fish. Here is a recipe I threw together out of desperation and starvation for dinner. I ended up having leftovers for lunch with a spinach salad the next day. 

Ingredients:

• several cloves of garlic ( I love garlic)
• 2-3 TBSP of olive oil
• tsp of unsalted butter
• two fillets of fish
• handful of frozen cooked shrimp (16/20 standard size)
• fresh cilantro
• breadcrumbs 
• cornmeal
• 1 egg
• Adobo
• Spanish seasoning
• dash of love

Salad:

• spinach leaves
• black olives and pimentos
• tomato
• celery

Directions:

Slice garlic and place in pan with olive oil and butter over medium heat. Clean fillets with vinegar and set aside. In a separate bowl, add Adobo and Spanish seasonings to cornmeal and breadcrumbs. Make sure you have equal parts breadcrumbs and cornmeal. Dip each fillet in beaten egg and then in breadcrumb/cornmeal mixture. Add each fillet to skillet with garlic and cook on each side for about 2 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Set your cooking timer for 45 minutes. I add a bit of olive oil to the bottom of my baking dish to avoid food sticking. Add fillets to glass baking dish and sprinkle cilantro on top of fillets. You can even drizzle the garlic and olive remnants from the skillet over the fillets for added flavor. Cover tightly with foil and bake. 

Shrimp Prep:

My hubby makes an amazing garlic rub for our pork dishes during the holidays. You will need a blender to make the rub:

Garlic Rub:

• several cloves of garlic
• 1/5 cup of olive oil
• sofrito (in frozen food aisle)
• recilantro (sister makes it for us or you can find it in frozen food aisle)
• 2 packets of Sazon

Blend the ingredients into a paste. You can freeze for later use. 

Add the garlic rub to the defrosted cooked shrimp. Place each shrimp on baking tray and cook for 45 minutes with fillets. Please see pictures below and Bon Appetit!

Cloth Diapers - Revisited and Rediscovered- Blog Worthy!

I am sure I am not the only mom out there who lives with a heavy wetter. For those who are not familiar with this term, it is used to describe the frequency of pee my son creates on a daily basis. We go through at least 10-12 cloth diaper per day and that is on a good day. Before having my son, I did extensive research on cloth diapers. I, too was a cloth-diapered baby but I know things have changes since the old school extra large safety pinned diapers. I found a website called Cottonbabies.com. I initially started using Flip diapers which are diaper covers and cloth diaper inserts. Then we got the Bum Genuis AIO (All In One) diapers that have a built-in cloth insert. Then I was being adventurous and decided to get more diaper covers called Econonbums. So after one year, my son is still going strong and is a happy cloth\-diapered baby. Unfortunately, I am always in the market for something that actually combined the functionality of the above mentioned. So I went to the most trusted source I could find... Amazon.com

Ode to Amazon:

Oh, how do I love Amazon. The way you provide so may options and selections. The way you give me one click purchasing abilities and options for next day shipping. Most importantly, the way you make me feel before the highly anticipated arrival of my bundle of happiness. Every time the bell rings, it is like Christmas ( or Kwanzaa or Hanukkah)! Let the gates of Amazon. com open and rain down on me!

Back to the matter at hand. I found a new AIO diaper called Mommy's Touch that came today. The price was $12.99 (less expensive than my previous Cottonbabies.com purchases) I ended up buying an Army fatigue print for my son. It comes with not one but two inserts that can detach with snaps. You can fold the diaper down to get even more protection or just close it like a regular diaper. It also has standard Velcro tabs. The only thing that was missing were the washing instructions. Most cloth diapers need to be washed a few times to build of their absorbency potential. With these, I am just going to wash them once and  go for it. I have attached pictures for those who are visually stimulated. I will follow up with a review after extensive lab testing (i.e. overnight wear).

Urban Scenes 101 - Free Acappella Music In The City

There are so many wonderful free events in New York City. I came across information about free acappella concert at 1pm ever day in the Wall Street area. Trinity Wall Street provides music ever day at 1pm for FREE. Visitors are welcome to enjoy the free concert. Donations are not required but are always welcomed! I plan on taking my son to enjoy the concert very soon. Feel free to visit the website:
trinitywallstreet.org. Please note, I am not endorsing any religious beliefs just free events! Enjoy!

Urban Baby 101- Playskool Explore and Grow Push 'N Stack Gears

During our morning walk, I decided to take a stroll into CVS. As usual, I had no intention of really buying anything, just window shopping. To my surprise, I found a super cute toy for my boy. He is a naturally curious baby, a bit too curious at times but this is something I need to encourage. He needs extremely challenging toys that come with many components and parts. I bought him another toy a few weeks ago that is also made by Playskool (Hasbro) but I completely became engulfed in life, work, school etc and forgot to blog about it. So today, I will talk about the Playskoll Explore and Grow Push 'N Pack Gears. I found this toy at CVS for $9.99. When I did a Google search online, I found it priced higher on Amazon.com and Ebay for $19.99 so I think I got a great deal. It comes with a main part that looks like a work and four movable gears. When you actually push the toy, the gears, wheels and eyes of the worm/caterpillar move in a cyclical formation. I disinfected the toy with some warm water and a tablespoon of bleach. I disinfect any new toy and clean my sons toys at least once a week. I usually do this after his bath. That way I can multitask, a skill that all mothers embody after giving birth!