Guest post at Segullah.

Segullah has been running several posts about LDS women in the workplace, and I wrote a guest post for them that was published today. Here's the link if you are interested.

Foodie Friday: LOVE Delivery Organic Vegetables

This week's Foodie Friday is a little different because it isn't about a restaurant but a service. A few months ago, I subscribed to L.O.V.E. Delivery (Los Angeles Organic Vegetable Express) in the hopes that it would motivate our family to eat more vegetables. Guess what? It is totally working.

There are several different vegetable delivery services out there, some of them cheaper than LOVE. I picked LOVE because A) They let you customize your order completely (as long as they have what you want) and B) Despite being more expensive than say, a CSA box (which runs at $17 in my neighborhood), I still consider the large box I receive (which the website calls a "small box"... they have an even larger option) to be a great deal at $28.50 a week.

Something to consider when choosing LOVE is whether or not local produce is important to you. LOVE provides local produce when it is available, but because they have the option of extensive customization, they do provide non-local organic produce as well. My family is picky and if we were receiving a box that had untouchables like bell peppers and cucumbers, we would be wasting our money. It is convenient to be able to decide exactly what we want. LOVE does denote which vegetables and fruits are local that week, so it is possible to stick to local as much as possible if that is important to you. In addition, one of their box options is an all-local box.

I have also been impressed with their service -- the box arrives in a timely manner and the delivery lady manages to get it to the door despite the gated entry (which, granted, may not speak much for our gated entry).

The produce has mostly been good. LOVE has the philosophy of delivering everything slightly unripe so that it won't go bad right away during the week. My only problem with this is that I can't always tell when something is ripe -- but I am learning. And honestly, the only thing I've gotten that I wasn't impressed with were the raspberries, and I am a raspberry snob.

The service isn't perfect -- for example, the fruits that Scott and I buy at a fruit stand called Loratelli are much better than the ones we receive in our weekly box -- but it definitely does its job of getting me to eat more fruits and vegetables. While I get to decide what we are getting each week, we still get a set amount that is probably more than I would just pick up in the produce section. I'm happy with the service and will continue with it while I remain in Los Angeles.

Inspiration for the Month of July

Here are some posts and articles that I found inspiring last month.

:: "How to Be Selfish" from Segullah -- is self-care the same as selfishness? A meditation on how to refill your tank. 

:: Let's teach our daughters to be healthy, not un-fat -- "When Your Mother Says She's Fat"

:: A real queen's message to real girls -- Have courage and overcome the odds.

:: Jessica Rey on modesty and the way bikinis undermine the beauty of the female body. Bonus: Awesome swimsuits. {I want this one}

:: Letter to a new mother on why there is no shame in postpartum depression

:: A feminist response to the "Ordain Women" movement. The author delineates why she believes "Ordain Women" is not actually a movement that would help women's rights -- and ways that the LDS church is becoming more inclusive to women in leadership and bettering the cultural treatment of women in general.

:: Working mothers are not evil role-shirkers or witches (cheer if you got that reference to Tina Fey's Bossypants). We all have different lives and different ways to fulfill our life missions, as long as we are following the guidance of our Heavenly Father.

What inspired you this month?

Mama Monday: Sleep Training Part Two

I thought I had it all figured out. Cal was going down without a fight every time, and sometimes taking naps longer than 45 minutes (SCORE!). I got a little cocky, turning to Scott every time Cal had a good nap and saying, "See? All my hard work paid off."

Then Cal got a cold and couldn't go to sleep unless we rocked him because he had awful coughing fits. And then we traveled for two weeks. And now's he's teething. Basically, all bets are off.

While I'm glad that I used the pick-up/put-down method to start off, we have started letting Cal cry it out from time to time. At night he has pretty much figured it out and usually cries for about ten seconds before passing out into blissful slumber. Naptime is another beast entirely -- usually I hold him for five minutes in the rocking chair. If he falls asleep, great -- if not, I put him down in the crib and he usually cries for at least twenty minutes. :( However, now that he is teething, we're rocking him to sleep all the time -- he is just so miserable I can't stand to leave him to cry for more than a few minutes.

The lessons from all this?

1. No matter what the books say, it is impossible to 100% follow any one regimen.
2. Be flexible, because sometimes what usually works is not going to cut it.
3. There is no right way to do it.
4. The baby changes ALL THE TIME.

It makes me think of this post by one woman who was frustrating with trying to figure out sleep training. (Seriously, click over, I promise you'll be able to relate).

He's sleeping right now, and as long as he's happy, I'm happy. The end.