Holly at Nap Time

AJ is finally starting to feel better. I took her back to the doctor yesterday, and since we had been there on Monday an ear infection had developed. Poor kiddo. She had to miss her first Halloween party this morning, which is a total bummer. It's a good thing she's too old to care yet, but I was still bummed because I really wanted to go!! Oh well. Take 2 tomorrow with festivities at our church. :)

Wishing you all a SAFE and fun Halloween weekend. Don't eat too much candy!

I'm finally starting to get on the ball with recipes for my Day Zero Project. The task at hand is to expand my recipe collection with 30 dinners that I've never made before. Here's #3 -

Pizza in a Bowl

Awhile back I started craving this pizza casserole my mom made while I was growing up, so I called her up to get the recipe, and now I'm happy to share it with you! This stuff if delicious!

Ingredients:
1lb lean ground beef
2 cups noodles (I like to use rotini, but any will work)
1 can of…

Well, unfortunately my daughter is still sick.  We are on day 4 of a fever (moderate) and I just left a message for the pediatrician asking if she wants us to come back in and see if there is a secondary infection. My poor little bug!! If anyone has any advice for comforting a sick baby (and getting her to eat) I'll gladly take it. We are using the humidifier, and that really seems to help. I found this organic foaming bath at the grocery stores from Aura Cacia. We've used it for the past three nights and it really seems to help plus it smells amazing.


This morning was also an adventure. I had to take my husband to work today, and on the way home, about a mile down the road from our house there was this little Pomeranian in the road, cowering and dodging traffic. It was foggy out, and the poor little guy was soaking wet and scared. Immediately after passing him/her, I burst out into tears. The thought of the dog getting hit by a car was too much for me to take, and before I kn…

Please take a moment to watch this quick video on how to protect our children from MRSA, and feel free to pass the word onto all the coaches and soccer moms you know!




*I am posting this video as part of my membership with the One2One Network. I was not compensated for this post.

Happy Tuesday, everyone. It's been a long couple of days for me - I've got a sick baby girl. :-(  Augh... it breaks my heart. On top of cutting her two front teeth and having a terrible cold, I took her to the pediatrician's office yesterday and she also has thrush (which we've had before, NOT fun!)
I am trying to stay in good spirits though. Just knowing that a little extra TLC and rest will help her feel better is encouraging. Now, if only I could get her to eat! It's a good thing that we discovered her love for kiwis last week because it's all I can get her to eat right now.
Yesterday was my wedding anniversary. :-)  2 years. Besides being ill, we decided to keep it low key anyways. We're kind of traditional in that way, and since the 2nd anniversary is known as the "cotton anniversary," we decided that our gifts would be new jeans. On Saturday I bought my first pair of Levi's, and I have to say that I'm impressed!! We bought food to mak…

This time of year my biggest challenge is trying to decide which holiday cards to send out to our friends and family. I like to send out Christmas photo cards, because living 750 miles away from our family deserves something a little more personal. (That and I love getting photo cards in return! It's so much fun to see how everyone's family has changed over the year.)

I'll admit, up until last year we were spending way too much money on holiday cards. They had to be the best, after all. Then last year we discovered that the best doesn't have to be overly priced at all, and could be found at Shutterfly.


I had heard of Shutterfly before, but we didn't try them until last November when we took our 2 week old peanut baby girl to see Santa at the local mall. The pricing package that we chose included a USB drive with our photo on it, as well as a $20 credit to Shutterfly, which of course we used!! Look at how tiny my little princess is here... she didn't even wake …

CLOSED

By now you've probably heard of CSN Stores. They have 200+ sites that sell the largest selection of items for most home and office goods. Chances are, if you need something for your home, that you can find it online at CSN Stores - and for a good price too.

I first learned of CSN Stores when a friend of mine mentioned buying an end table for her living room from the CSN Store, AllCoffeeTables.com.  The selection is absolutely incredible. (I don't know if you remember, but I mentioned a couple months ago that my husband and I are in need of real end tables. My current nightstand is a big plastic storage bin with a decorative quilt thrown over it!!) Now to just decide which ones I like the best.  


Win! I was thrilled when CSN Stores offered to do a giveaway with me for a $35 gift code to any of their 200+ sites! With the holidays just around the corner, you can't go wrong with that! What would you use the $35 to buy? 



 



  …

It's sad to think that we live in such a time of bullying and violence. We've all seen it in the news lately - I'm not going to revisit it. There are a lot of "movements" happening to raise awareness of bullying and teaching tolerance. One such movement is Love is Louder, led by celeb Brittany Snow.

While these actions to raise awareness are a great start, there is really no better place to start than in your own home, teaching your children how to be kind to others.

K is for Kindness

I was at a public playground with my daughter a couple of weeks ago when a mom was babbling on and on about how her 2 1/2 year old son couldn't be held responsible for his actions because he was too young to understand or care about being nice. Um. 2 1/2 year olds are pretty smart, am I wrong? If it doesn't start at home, where is understanding kindness supposed to occur?
Set a Good Example

Sometimes it's easy to forget that our children see virtually everything to do. S…

Yesterday we finally joined the bandwagon and signed up for Netflix. We had been discussing doing it for awhile, but I don't know why we never had. Then a few days ago I was getting ready to do one of my exercise DVDs and it occurred to me that Netflix might have a broader selection of workout DVDs. Because let's be honest, even though exercise DVDs are a great way to get in a workout without leaving the house, they do get a little monotonous over time. Anyways... I was right! I was really happy with the selection that Netflix has to offer, and on top of all the things I can watch instantly on my Wii, Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred is now on its way to my mailbox. Woohoo!!
Time for another recipe to add to my "Make 30 New Dinners" task on the Day Zero Project. Last night I made slow cooker chicken & wild rice, and for a side I made roasted sweet potato & carrot puree. Delish!
I got the recipe for the slow cooker chicken and wild rice here, at Christy Jordon…

Hello Fellow Bloggers! Welcome to Holly at Nap Time. I hope you like what you see. Please leave me a comment so that I know you stopped by!

I shared my Milano Moment, what's yours?
My Milano Moment is enjoying a Double Chocolate Milano Cookie right after I've put my daughter down for a nap and the entire house is, if only for a few minutes, perfectly quiet.
October is breast cancer awareness month.
Every 69 seconds, a woman dies of breast cancer.* Susan G. Komen for the Cure is trying to change this startling statistic, and there are so many easy ways that you can help!
Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies are asking you to share your Milano Moment with them on Facebook. For each Milano Moment shared, they will donate .50 to Komen for the Cure, up to $50,000! Join with me and share your Milano Moment today to help maximize the donation received.
Chances are that you know someone that has been touched by breast cancer. I'm sure you've seen the commercials. 1 in 8 women will develop breast cancer over the course of her life. I have a friend who was recently diagnosed. We need to join together now to raise awareness…

I mentioned last week that a recent trip to the vet encouraged us to try a new weight loss regimen for our cat, Nessie. We have been trying prescription cat food for about a year and a half now because our other cat has chylothorax. And as I mentioned before, even though their current food was super low in fat, it was packed full of carbs, which (poor kitty) went straight to Nessie's hips. Our vet recommended Purina OM (overweight management) for Nessie, and took it upon herself to call the scientists at Purina to see if it would also be an acceptable diet for Genevieve's chylothorax. The answer was a green light, so here we go on Nessie's weight loss journey!


The Purina Project: Pet Slim Down™

The wonderful folks at Purina are determined to create a healthier world for our pets. Often, we feed our pets without even thinking about it too much. Are we measuring the amount of food they get? Do we let them graze how they please throughout the day? How about treats? Are we r…

Can you tell that I'm really getting into the alliteration with these titles? For those of you who have been reading the Fall Family Challenge from the beginning, I hope you're finding some excellent ideas for how to spend time with your family. Please let me know if there is an activity that you would like to see featured! And for those of you just joining in, welcome!

Yesterday was a very rainy day in Central Virginia - a perfect day for making Black Bean Stuffed Peppers. That, and my husband raved about them to friends over the weekend, so I thought I'd treat him. (And yea... of my 30 new dinners to try for my day zero project, I still have 29 to go. If you have any suggestions please email them to holly@hollyatnaptime.com.)

Oh yeah! And we're on Facebook now too. Please click here or click the button in the right sidebar to "like" us on Facebook. See you there! ;)

J is for Jazzy Jack-O-Lanterns

The pumpkin. For a couple months each year the pumpkin comes…

Cold and flu season is coming up again! I remember freaking out at this time last year because I was 8 months pregnant and the H1N1 virus was running rampant everywhere. I pretty much spent the last month of my pregnancy (and the first three months of AJ's life) locked in my house - only allowing my husband to enter if he sanitized himself at the door. Here are some helpful tips for safeguarding your home against cold and flu virus', without acting like a mad woman.

I is for Icky Illness Safeguarding


Disinfecting Wipes
I'm a huge fan of disinfecting wipes, like these ones from Clorox. I love that they are safe on wood, streak free on glass, and clean 99.9% of surface germs. Use them regularly to clean things like:

1. your phone receiver
2. remote controls
3. video game controls
4. cell phones
5. stroller handles

It's these commonly used items that are most likely to be missed in the cleaning process and end up spreading the germs of cold and flu. I recently saw a st…

Liz over at From Chalkboards to Strollers recently awarded me THREE blog awards - WOW! The One Lovely Blog Award, the Versatile Blog Award, and the Stylish Blogger Award. I recently have given out the first two awards, so in this entry I graciously accept and pass on the Stylish Blogger Award. Again, thanks to From Chalkboards to Strollers for reading and awarding! 
Rules for accepting:


1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award
2. Share 7 things about yourself
3. Pass this on to 13 other great bloggers
4. Contact the selected bloggers and tell them about their awards

7 Things about Holly:
1. The most amazing place I've ever been is St. Lucia. My husband and I spent two beautiful weeks there on our honeymoon. We still talk about this trip all the time.
2. Before becoming a stay-at-home mom, I worked as the Manager of Franchising and Operations for a major children's brand. I met many celebrities. Among my favorites were Tina Fey and Elisabeth Hasselbeck.
3. I …

My first order of business is a Day Zero Project update. If you're just recently joining, I started a Day Zero Project in August in hopes to accomplish 101 goals in 1,001 days. Now with 953 days to go I am officially 6% of the way complete with my project. Here's what I've finished so far:

3. Feed a giraffe.
8. Walk in a 5k.
21. Find a professional new look for my blog.
24. Rent a cabin in the woods.
58. Buy myself a piece of jewelry.
99. Fit back into my pre-pregnancy jeans.

To check out my complete list of goals, please click here.

Over the weekend we accomplished #24. Rent a cabin in the woods. We rented a place with two of our friends from New York in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. The weather was perfect this weekend, and the mountains were in all their fall glory! It was a nice weekend, but it went by entirely too fast.




And as part of my Day Zero Project, one of my goals is to answer (in my opinion... a journaling exercise) the 50 Questions that Will Free Your…

Well, this post couldn't have come at a better time. Yesterday I took my took feline babies to the vet for their annual check-up.
When my husband and I first adopted our cats from North Shore Animal League in July 2007, they were 8 weeks old, and my attitude was "a cat is a cat." I was looking forward to two cute little balls of fur romping around my house and visiting with me when I needed a friend. Little did I know how attached to them I would become. Long story short, in early 2009, our cat Genevieve started breathing really rapidly, so I rushed her to the animal hospital where I was told that it was "probably heart failure" and was immediately given the option to have her put down. Um. No. I was newly pregnant at the time and a ball of emotions. I threw a raging fit at the animal hospital, and with the patience of my husband was able to have them run some more tests on her. Several thousand dollars later, it turned out that she had chylothorax (liquid in h…

Welcome to Holly at Nap Time fellow bloggers! Please let me know you stopped by so that I can return the favor. If you like what you see, follow along! Thanks!

Happy Tuesday! I hope that everyone had a nice weekend. Today I'm playing catch up a little bit, because I spent a good part of Sunday and Monday trying to come up with a new look for the blog. My previous look was put together by me, but taken from some ideas from other templates. Things just seem better when you make them yourself from scratch. At least... I get more satisfaction by looking at it everyday that way. What do you think? I'd love any feedback you have. I know it will look different on different computers/programs, so I'd like to continue to build it to maximize its potential on all platforms.

And I've got to be honest, when I first started the design this is not at all what I had in mind. It's just sort of what happened. Funny how that works, isn't it? Regardless, I like it.

You also might have noticed that we have moved to .com status. Hooray! Don't worry though, hollyatnaptime.blogspot.com will still direct you here too.

Speaking about D…