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I’m so excited to partner with Charity from The Homegrown Family, as well as a few other bloggers, to bring you this awesome giveaway!!! An Ergo! If you have a diastasis, the best way to wear your baby is on your back or on your side, and this carrier allows that. You don’t want the baby’s weight resting right on your tummy, pushing on your damaged abdominal wall, and the belt on the ergo – if worn right – will aid in splinting your gap, in my opinion because it helps the transverse abdominus do its job while reducing pressure in the core.

I’ve owned many baby carriers over the years and the Ergo carrier is one of my favorites! I especially like that I can carry my children, even my strapping toddler, on my back, in front, or my hip comfortably.

I can work hands-free while still mothering and keeping my little ones safely nearby.

When I’m out shopping, I can tuck them into the Ergo, where they can comfortably sleep next to mama’s heartbeat.

And on windy days, I can fasten the head cover to protect their delicate skin.

As for other benefits, read this info, straight from the site:

ERGObaby’s baby carrier design supports a natural sitting position for babies, eliminating compression of the spine and hips that can be caused by unsupported suspension. The baby carrier also balances the baby’s weight to parents’ hips and shoulders, and alleviates physical stress for the parent.

Not only does The Homegrown Family offer this fabulous product, but they also offer awesome kitchen tools, such as The Wondermill Grain Mill (a favorite of mine), Bosch Mixers, and the Excalibur Dehydrator (another favorite).

She even carries high quality coconut oil which I use for everything from my goat’s udders while milking, to diaper rashes, to cooking, to smoothing out scratched in our knotty pine paneling. 

Check out her fabulous items and help support a homeschooling mama to many! Her family is beautiful! Here’s more about them: 

Due to shipping restrictions, this giveaway is only available to our US friends.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you for reading the Fit2Blog today! What are your thoughts about what you read? Please leave a reply or a question, and be sure you’re taking advantage of our amazing TummySafe™ workouts!

Twice in the past week, I’ve been contacted by women who want to join Fit2B Studio’s online Tummy Safe™ video library, but they’re concerned about “the yoga part.” One wrote:

“Hi- I found your site this morning through Wise Woman Builds Her Home. I am a homeschool mom of 6 also in the Pacific Northwest (greater Seattle area). I am a writer for [a really BIG homeschooling magazine - name removed to protect identity]. I am working on an article about Physical Education that will come out in [an upcoming] issue…  I would like to include your site, but I want to be sure that it meets the reader’s needs, especially since so many Christians shy away from yoga because of the connections with Eastern Religions. I personally do not have an issue with yoga as long as there is no eastern meditation.”

It’s a sticky issue, and you can read one other blog I wrote about why I do think Yoga can be powerful worship of my Creator, but I wanted to get more personal with these ladies and try to sum up once again why I think it’s okay to do yoga moves as a Christian. I realize Pastor Mark of Mars Hill takes a strong stance against yoga (and you can read his “you’re going to hell if you do yoga” article here if you have the stomach for it) but I hope you’ll read all the other links in this blog, too, and not just categorize this site as a hippie, pagan, karmamojowoowoopoopoo site because I utilize yoga in a few of my workouts. Here’s what I wrote to “N.”

Dear N- 

Thank you for your interest in Fit2B Studio’s workouts. Many of our members are homeschooling parents (as am I) … [then I addressed some other questions she had before going all "yoga is okay" on her] Now I’m going to copy some info that I recently sent to another blogger with a similar concern…

First, in the interest of full disclosure, I want to be clear that my workouts do contain a few yoga poses. I normally use the english translations of the words, but I strongly believe in taking our thoughts captive for Christ (2 Cor. 10:5). I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the Holy Yoga movement, but they are an organization that certifies instructors to teach yoga moves while leading people to Jesus. While I am not “holy yoga certified” my work resonates with theirs, and I have audited one of their courses. They spend more time in God’s word than in anatomy! 

However yoga isn’t my focus. I pull from many schools of movement to help my members make a healthy start, including pilates, weight lifting, physical therapy moves, even a little tai chi. Quite a few of my members are christians, but not all. I do not practice any mind-emptying in my videos, nor do I subscribe to hinduism. The way I look at it, a move is a move is a move. Yoga happens to have actually named many movements with better terms than western cultures. Sitting cross legged or “criss cross applesauce” or “indian style” or “potted palm”… It’s all the same position. But I like “Potted Palm.”

I also love the symbolism behind the lotus pose, because the lotus represents holiness the way it blooms in mud but doesn’t let a piece of dirt stick to it. We don’t stop sitting cross legged because the yogis gave it a different name. We don’t stop doing lunges because the Indus call them warrior poses. And we don’t stop doing kegels because Sanskrit calls it mula bandha (which means “root lock” which is much different than a kegel and much nicer around little ears… [If we stop doingIn short, if you are at all uncomfortable with yoga, even just the movements, or if you feel your readers might raise a stink, this may not work…. I’m anything BUT new age [although I did cloth diaper, and I recycle, respect the earth, and listen to Enya and other flutey hippie music]. And the yoga doesn’t get big promotion or attention. 

As a homeschooling mom – a very NEW homeschooling mom – I need lots of ideas and inspiration. Being a fitness junkie, I’m all about getting my kids outdoors, but that can be a toughie seeing as how we live in a big city in the Pacific NorthWest (a.k.a. where Twilight was filmed because it’s so dark here). So most of my pics come from our second home in Montana. Here’s my little man …

When I saw that Living and Learning was doing this thing where you post pictures of your kids enjoying nature, I knew I had to participate. See the button on the right and click on it to participate! Here’s one of my man taking our kids fishing on the creek that runs through his parents’ property. I love how my hubby is smelling my son’s fuzzy head, and the look on my daughter’s face makes me laugh every time I see it.

This next one of her also makes me smile. She loves animals, and feeding this baby goat had her giggling so hard! This was also taken in Montana at the home of my husband’s cousin who is a cattle rancher.

 

If you’re visiting from the Hip Homeschool Hop, please follow me on GFC or Networked Blogs and then comment so I can return the favor Blessings!

 

Thank you for reading the Fit2Blog today! What are your thoughts about what you read? Please leave a reply or a question, and be sure you’re taking advantage of our amazing TummySafe™ workouts!

We were able to put my daughter in a lovely private christian preschool last year. But our finances for this year were tapped out by medical expenses. My husband ended up in the hospital overnight for fainting while driving. My daughter had to have surgery to correct her bilateral ureter reflux, and right after that my toddler son got a double inguinal hernia! So we decided to homeschool … just for a year … how hard could kindergarten be?

REALLY HARD!!! I’d really like to make a long list of complaints I have, but I feel so foolish when so many have tried so hard to help us. We have an awesome charter school as part of the Paisley Program, so we didn’t have to buy curriculum. I think the biggest problem I encounter, though, is time management. And I don’t mean just juggling my day, I mean juggling my year.

The kids got sick. We changed curriculums and had to wait for it. My son had surgery. We had to travel. I launched an online fitness studio to make ends meet, because I can’t really teach outside the home right now. The kids got sick again. The holidays came. The kids got the stomach flu! We have relatives visiting …

How do you moms do this!!!???!!! I am tearing my hair out! When we do manage to get a couple days in row of homeschooling done, it’s a constant fight because we’re trying to establish the routine all over again. Did I mention that the lovely calendar I have on my kitchen wall is never up to date (and I personally hate how it clashes with my decor)??? Help Please!

Thank you for reading the Fit2Blog today! What are your thoughts about what you read? Please leave a reply or a question, and be sure you’re taking advantage of our amazing TummySafe™ workouts!

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, but my daughter doesn’t have the day off. We home-school our kindergartner, so we were just going about our day until it was time to put the next number on the calendar. Thankfully, I had put the MLK Day square from the calendar kit up at the start of the month. Otherwise, I hate to admit it, but I might have forgotten! My daughter asked, “Mommy, who’s that dark man on the calendar?” Time stood still for me as I gathered my thoughts. Yes, she’s old enough. It’s time. So I told her.

Well, Baby Girl … That man lived back when people like us with white skin didn’t let people like him with dark skin do things with us. We didn’t let them drink out of the same drinking fountains as us. We didn’t let them go to school with us … Her eyes got super-wide. “That’s not very nice,” she said with her hands on her hips. No, It’s not nice, honey. But that man – his name is Martin Luther King, Jr. – He told us we weren’t being nice, and he talked to a lot of people about changing those mean, silly rules. She was really paying attention to my words! “So can I meet him?” She asked. I wish you could, but he’s not alive anymore. Why isn’t he alive? Did someone kill him? (How did she foresee that? She’s never heard the story!) Yes, a lot of people didn’t like him telling them that dark people should be treated the same way as white people. So someone shot him with a gun. Oh that’s so sad … Yes, honey. It is. But I’m glad he lived, because he said things people needed to hear.

Now, people. I’m not the crying, emotional type. But that conversation had me wiping away tears as I watched my daughter grasp a very important concept: That we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights … Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream, and that dream is coming true. Talk to your children.

Thank you for reading the Fit2Blog today! What are your thoughts about what you read? Please leave a reply or a question, and be sure you’re taking advantage of our amazing TummySafe™ workouts!

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, but my daughter doesn’t have the day off. We home-school our kindergartner, so we were just going about our day until it was time to put the next number on the calendar. Thankfully, I had put the MLK Day square from the calendar kit up at the start of the month. Otherwise, I hate to admit it, but I might have forgotten! My daughter asked, “Mommy, who’s that dark man on the calendar?” Time stood still for me as I gathered my thoughts. Yes, she’s old enough. It’s time. So I told her.

Well, Baby Girl … That man lived back when people like us with white skin didn’t let people like him with dark skin do things with us. We didn’t let them drink out of the same drinking fountains as us. We didn’t let them go to school with us … Her eyes got super-wide. “That’s not very nice,” she said with her hands on her hips. No, It’s not nice, honey. But that man – his name is Martin Luther King, Jr. – He told us we weren’t being nice, and he talked to a lot of people about changing those mean, silly rules. She was really paying attention to my words! “So can I meet him?” She asked. I wish you could, but he’s not alive anymore. Why isn’t he alive? Did someone kill him? (How did she foresee that? She’s never heard the story!) Yes, a lot of people didn’t like him telling them that dark people should be treated the same way as white people. So someone shot him with a gun. Oh that’s so sad … Yes, honey. It is. But I’m glad he lived, because he said things people needed to hear.

Now, people. I’m not the crying, emotional type. But that conversation had me wiping away tears as I watched my daughter grasp a very important concept: That we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights … Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream, and that dream is coming true. Talk to your children.

Thank you for reading the Fit2Blog today! What are your thoughts about what you read? Please leave a reply or a question, and be sure you’re taking advantage of our amazing TummySafe™ workouts!