That’s okay, though. Although I get a lot out of working, my real focus is Kamea and my family. I don’t have to pick one totally over the other, but I do need to find better ways to fit it all in. So, I’m streamlining. Doing this means less fragmentation for my mind, more peace for my soul, and being a better mommy and wife.

What does this mean for my workload? It means that I’m keeping my Green Mommy Blog up, but I won’t be posting here (at least not for now). I’m going to post all things green, mommy, and food related over on my Kristen’s Raw Blog. It’s all related anyway, right? Maintaining one blog will (hopefully) help in more ways than one. See you over there!

A while back, I opened up my Kristen’s Raw blog to questions about me, my lifestyle, raw food, etc. You can check out all the great questions and answers here. Then, I received a couple of questions about my daily life in general, which I answered over here on my Green Mommy Blog. Another reader sent me an email with a variety of fun and interesting questions that I thought I’d answer today. Here we go…

Because you are so inspiring to so many, I would be interested in what other practices you have in your life.

1) For example, I believe you set goals, but do you have a system for doing so? How often do you do it? Is it something you attend to daily or weekly? Where did you learn your system / or how did you come up with it? You’re right! I do set goals. Every year, my husband and I set goals at New Years. I love the process – thinking about the future, planning, getting excited about the projects and things I want to work on. It fills me with hope and vigor. So, what exactly do I do? Every year, my husband and I stay “in” for New Year’s Eve. We light candles, play fun music, turn on the Christmas lights and write our resolutions. I do it BIG style though. I take the opportunity of the new year and really take a look at my life and what I want to accomplish for the coming year. So, I take the practice of setting “resolutions” and kick it up a notch.

First, we get out last year’s boards (I’ll explain “boards” in a moment) and we go through everything we wrote about last year. We talk about how far or close we came with certain resolutions/goals, cross off the accomplishments, and use this info to help formulate plans for the following year. We each get out a big piece of poster board (hence, the “board”) and work on our resolutions for the coming year. I separate my life into facets such as: Health, Leisure, Relationships, Finance, Career, etc. Then, I write individual short term and long terms resolutions/goals in all of these categories. I make the whole process really fun and go all out! I use colored pens, stickers, glitter, and highlighters. I guess it’s kind of like a vision board, but without pictures. When I’m all done with it, I hang it on the wall by my desk so I can see it every day and be reminded of all the Big and Little Resolutions I set for myself. This helps me stay on track and MOTIVATED! And, it’s fun building my New Year’s Resolution Picture (i.e., the poster board). And, let me tell ya, it sure works for me. I get so much more accomplished this way.

2) Do you read success books and if so which ones inspire you the most? It’s been a while since I read any of them, but I’ve always been a huge fan of Tony Robbins. Years ago I bought his Get the Edge series and it worked wonders for my life. Being interested in that type of book is one of the reasons that Greg and I met. For those of you who don’t know, we met through eHarmony six years ago, and in my profile I wrote that I enjoyed Tony Robbins’ work. Well, Greg is no stranger to success-type books, with his dad being Shad Helmstetter. So, we had that in common.

3) What magazines do you subscribe to (health and otherwise)? I subscribe to VegNews, Life Extension, and I used to subscribe to Purely Delicious (no longer available), Mothering (no longer available except I think you can subscribe for an online mag?) and Kiwi (thought is was pretty good, but not worth renewing).

4) Do you journal, practice yoga or meditate? I wish I could do yoga. I’ve tried it many times with different instructors and it’s just not my thing. I don’t meditate regularly, but I do have times where I take the time to center myself, sometimes while taking a bath, and sometimes just before going to bed. Something I want to do more of, so thanks for the reminder. Journaling?… Again, not as much as I would like to unless you include my daily food journal – lol. I do, however, spend 10 minutes, one day a week (I call it Gratitude Wednesday) where I think about the things for which I’m grateful. I find that extremely centering.

5) How do you come across new ideas such as for health or parenting? I’m constantly reading books on health and wellness as well as reading online by subscribing to newsletters, etc. Too many to name! It’s a bit of information overload to tell you the truth and sometimes I want to pull my hair out because I feel like I’m always “on” with my full inbox and Kindle. Sadly, I might hyperventilate if I don’t have my iPhone nearby, tis the life of a business owner. On the other hand, I really do enjoy reading stuff for which I’m passionate, so it’s fun at the same time.

6) Do you read parenting books and what has influenced you the most? I do, but I’m careful to always follow my intuition first. It’s pretty obvious that I’m happily more of the “counter culture” type so I find that, for the most part, there hasn’t been one single parenting book that I’ve agreed with 100% (I haven’t read many on attachment parenting, however, because I knew I was already into that style of parenting so there’s a good chance those would be books that I’d tend to agree with more). What I do, for the books I read, is to take the info I like, discard the stuff that doesn’t apply, and weave my own blanket of parenting with a heavy dose of intuition.

However, I just finished reading a book that I would wholeheartedly recommend to all parents. It was thought provoking, interesting, and filled with quite a bit of info that I plan to chew on for a long time (until Kamea goes off to college, basically). It’s called Nurture Shock. There are some other good ones that I’ve enjoyed (Brain Rules for Baby, Bright from the Start, SuperBaby, and Playful Parenting – I haven’t read Playful Parenting, but it’s in my Kindle waiting to be ready), but Nurture Shock is probably my favorite. I really got a lot out of it.

Thanks for those great questions!

One of her favorite books is Rockin’ Babies by Dr. Jenn Berman (fellow vegan and author of SuperBaby). Here I am, sharing with the world (I did this on my Facebook author page, but that’s only available to fans so the audience was limited), my singing to Kamea.

By the way… the part about “spitting on authority figures” is not as bad as it might sound. It’s a cute picture of a dad being spit “up” on with baby food. See?

By the way, check out Kamea’s baby freeze pops on my Kristen’s Raw blog here.

I like to give her choices and I found myself putting a few different things in a bowl, where they would ultimately end up getting mixed together. Not a big deal, but I wanted to keep them separate so she could see them better. I went on the hunt for the perfect feeding tray and I found it! I found a couple of things actually (and I’ll blog about the others in the future), but this is the one we’re using at home the most. It’s a BPA-free plastic tray with lid, shaped like a pineapple with tiny compartments perfect for filling with little baby bits of food.

Today she’s gobbling up the following organic vegan and raw snacks…

• soaked goji berries
• black beans (not raw)
• diced prunes
• raisins
• pine nuts
• diced mango with complete protein hemp seeds
• orange bell pepper

She’s one happy baby!

What does your usually day look like? I mean, you’re a mom of 1 year old. You workout daily. You also work on your blog and on other projects. I know it is hard to take care of baby and work too.  Is Kamea good baby who let you work? Also, when you make your food do you make for Kamea the same one or you prepare for her different food? How often do you breastfeed her? It is still her main sources of calories intake? I am asking because I mom of little girl too and just want to get some inspiration. I know every mom want the best for her child and her family. Do you give her some source of omega3,6 fatty acid or she get it from your breast milk? I appreciate a lot for all your answers. Many thanks for your work for us.

Hi, Kristen love love love everything about Kristen Suzanne! You are one true inspiration. My question is ~ How does a typical day in your life look like? During the week or on the weekend? I always wanted to know:) I am a working mom to a beautiful, little girl (i work out of the house 9-5). A lot of times, I find myself wanting to eat raw, vegan, healthy, yummy…but cannot seem to organize myself or fit everything from preparing the food, playing with the baby, working out, etc etc into my daily schedule. and weekends are always full of Birthday parties, dinners at in laws etc. I want to know how you do it, and always with a huge smile on your face. I really adore You! ~with love, Magda (Joanna’s friend:)

For the first 6 to 7 months of Kamea’s life, I didn’t do much other than take care of her, take care of my family in general, and work. That’s a lot in and of itself! What was missing though was time for myself… time to exercise… time to read stuff other than research for work… etc. 

It was around 7-months for Kamea when I decided I needed to make some changes. It was time for this mama to take a bit of time for herself… every day! I knew that I wanted and needed to exercise. So, I warned told Greg that I’d need more help when it came to Kamea. I needed him to watch her more. I wanted time to exercise every day, even if it just meant I went to the health club and leisurely walked on the track. I needed him to help more, in general, so that I can get more things done in shorter time. For example, making lunch and dinner with Kamea strapped to me in a carrier is great and fun, but it means that prepping dinner is going to take me almost twice as long in some instances depending on what I’m making. Greg was a thousand percent supportive. He even went so far as to tell his business partner that she’s not to schedule morning meetings because that’s the time I go to the health club. Awesome, huh?

So, that covers the part about how I get my exercise time in every day. What about work? Well, that’s been a bit of a toughie to figure out and I’m still navigating the waters of figuring out the ideal work/family balance. Essentially, I reserve the time during Kamea’s napping for working… if I’m not napping with her or reading next to her while she naps. If I don’t get something done, so be it. I’m more interested in making sure that I’m well rested (and happy!) so that I can be the best mom possible for Kamea. Our pirate-style family bed means that I don’t leave her alone while napping because she could fall out. So, I moved my desktop into our bedroom to facilitate working while she naps. If I’m not on the computer, I have my iPhone to read from (using the Kindle app), surf the web, or tend to emails. Or… I nap with her. Her nap schedule isn’t really a schedule, but she usually takes two naps a day, and sometimes it’s only once a day. So, to answer the question above about whether Kamea lets me work? No, she doesn’t, but that’s ok because I don’t want to work when she’s awake. I reserve work time for when she naps. If I’m on a strict deadline, then I have Greg watch her if she’s awake, while I work.

Regarding food prep and feeding Kamea… she is primarily breastfed, but she has the option to eat off our plates whenever she wants. I don’t have restrictions for her regarding food so long as it’s not too hard for her to chew since she only has 8 teeth. And, since she gets so much breastmilk I’m not supplementing her with anything. Once the time comes, I’ll look into Udo’s oil for her (both the regular blend and the one with DHA-fish free) as well as other things like a multi, vitamin B12, probiotics, and vitamin D.

How do I handle all of the food prep in my house and keep it easy? Well, for starters, I have a husband who is content to eat whatever, as many times in a row as necessary. We both love huge salads and smoothies and that makes life easier.

Here are some tips:

Keep things stocked for pure success! I always have tons of options for organic vegan foods (raw and not raw). For example: an array of nuts, seeds, dried fruits, kale chips, granola (some raw and some not), nut milks (some raw and some not), tempeh, oats, beans (canned-BPAfree and dried… I use my pressure cooker to cook the dried variety), Fig soups, Gardein burgers, raw crackers (some homemade and some store bought), raw desserts stocked in my freezer, sprouted breads, and lots of bars (Pure bars, Boku bars, etc).

Organization rules! I have a method to my madness from the placement of my raw appliances to the stocking of my food, and as I wrote before, being well stocked is a must. Check out my guest blog posts at the Raw Divas for some great details. Part One! And, here is Part Two!

Big batches – that’s where it’s at! Greg and I both love huge smoothies, protein shakes, and salads. So, those make up the bulk of our raw diet. To make this easy, I like to have greens washed and ready to use. I keep my salad spinner full of washed and chopped romaine lettuce all the time (I probably wash and chop lettuce/greens 2-3 times a week). That way, I can just grab a big bowl, throw the lettuce in and I’m well on my way. The next part involves chopping the toppings and this takes 10-minutes or less and I like to chop fresh just before topping the salad to reduce oxidation. Finally, the trick for keeping this all quick and easy is to have my dressing already made. I make easy and mega delicious salad dressings about twice a week. Here are some favorites: 4-Ingredient Magic Dressing and Garlic Almond Dressing.

The same applies for things like black beans, lentils, and oats. I cook them in big batches so we can eat them for days on end. I keep the variety by changing the flavorings and toppings. For example, one night black beans are topped with salsa or raw dressing and gently steamed broccoli. Another night, I serve them with guacamole. Another night is with chopped veggies. When it comes to oatmeal (I could eat this stuff all day!), I keep the variety by having it one time with nut milk and chopped nuts, next I serve with molasses and hemp seeds, another time with chopped banana and coconut milk. Sometimes I make it savory and serve with spiralized zucchini, dice tomatoes and garlic. The options are endless and when you make a big batch of things like plain oats or beans, once a week, it saves you so much prep time. Be sure to store all of your foods in glass containers, too! I like mason jars and these.

Eating out (and delivery) for sanity! For the times that I just don’t feel like food prep, we either go out to eat (here are our favorite places: Chef Sara, Tru Food, and Chipotle) or I plan ahead and order raw foods.

What is my typical day like during the week? Since Greg and I both work from home, our week days and weekends don’t really get separated. The weekends tend to feel a bit more relaxed but for the most part a Tuesday is like a Saturday for us.

Here’s what happens! I wake up (Greg stays asleep since he works late into the night). I do my morning routine with Kamea (change her diaper, comb her hair, brush our teeth, wash my face, etc). Then, Kamea and I head downstairs where the first stop is the kitchen. I make a protein shake or some type of easy breakfast. Next, I set up the coffee pot with organic decaf coffee, and then I set out all of our supplements in little bowls for the day (we take our doses divided). Then, it’s play time. I read to Kamea and we play with toys. After about an hour or so, I wake Greg up so he can watch Kamea and I head to the gym. Door to door, I’m gone 1.5 – 2 hours. Once I’m home, I eat a quick post workout meal (usually a shake, nuts, and banana or date/fig). Kamea breastfeeds and then I play with her, and we decide what to do for lunch. Next is nap time where I work or nap with Kamea. Play with Kamea. Decide what to do for dinner. And, then we usually try to go on an adventure about 4-5 nights a week. We choose the evening if it’s during the summer because it’s cooler out. Otherwise, we go on adventures during the day. What is an adventure? Anything that doesn’t involve being at home! Going for a walk, going to the mall, Whole Foods, head to a resort and hang out, museum, Starbucks… you name it. We try to get out and show Kamea different things.

That’s my life in a nutshell.

We love reading to Kamea and she requests it every day, multiple times. Now that she knows the sign “more” in sign language, we see it over and over and over and over and … well, you get the point. Once the story ends, she wants more. Yay!

We’re building her library of books and I buy most of them on Amazon if they’re not hand-me-downs from friends and relatives. However, when you’re not buying from a bookstore where you can flip through it, you don’t always know everything it’ll contain. Recently, I bought the book “Yummy YUCKY” by Leslie Patricelli. It’s such a cute board book with the pictures, colors, and font. The story basically shows one side of the page with something yummy on it, like spaghetti. Then, on the next page it shows something similar, but yucky… like worms. It makes it really fun to read to Kamea as I exclaim out loud the pages that are YUCKY! I make an “eh eh” sound and she imitates me. 

The problem is that there are some foods shown in the book that are illustrated as yummy but that we would clearly not feed her as vegan parents. So, what did we do? We edited the book to suit our needs. (Kudos to Greg’s talented hand in making the words actually look like the other words’ font.)

Here are three examples of some of the changes we made!

This page used to read: “Burgers are yummy.” So, we changed it to “Boca Burgers are yummy.”

This page used to read: “Eggs are yummy.” So, we changed it to “Tofu eggs are yummy.”

This page used to read: “Fish sticks are yummy.” So, we changed it to “Faux Fish sticks are yummy.”

I read in a parenting book that if you find a children’s book that you just don’t agree with, then simply stop reading it. In our case, the book was so darn cute, that we just changed it.

What is Kamea’s favorite book? As in… which book could she hear over and over and over and over? “Doggies” by Sandra Boynton. I love that her favorite book has to do with dogs which is so near and dear to my heart. She’s going to be a big animal lover, I can tell.

In fact, we’re teaching Kamea Spanish right now (I’ll blog more on this later) so I bought the Spanish version, “Perritos” as well. Guess what? She wants to hear it over and over and over and over… you get the point. You can see from the picture below that they’re getting a bit worn – haha.

Let’s start with the impressive stats on this sustainable gem. The lid is made from food-grade and BPA free plastics (don’t worry though, even while it’s BPA free plastic, there isn’t much plastic on the bottle as a whole). The main part of the bottle is a glass interior housed by a bitchin’ bamboo sheath. No nasty toxins are going to make their way into your beverage from this chic beauty. According to the company’s brochure, “Metal bottles are manufactured from mined resources, may require a chemical resin to prevent corrosion, and can leave a tinny taste in your mouth.” And, of course, we know that many commonly used plastic bottles may leach chemicals that you end up ingesting. That leads us to finding an alternative… enter: Bamboo Bottle. It’s definitely, as Bamboo Bottle says, “A one-of-a-kind bottle for a one-of-a-kind planet.” What’s extra awesome is that you can put cold and hot beverages in it. Organic coffee or yerba mate tea, anyone? I didn’t see any claims to hold their temperatures and this is something I haven’t tested.

More Bamboo Bottle specs: it holds 17 ounces of volume with a height of 10.25 inches and a width coming in at 3.125 inches. The weight? Well, this bottle isn’t for the faint of heart. It weighs in an approximate heft of over 21 ounces (and that’s without anything in it). As bone crushing eco-friendly bottles go, this one would make a great expedient weapon! The cost? 25 bucks.

As for my own experience… at first glance it is truly beautiful and remarkable. I originally had my sights set on showing this off at the gym or toting it around town, but a few things preclude that from happening. For starters, I’ve already mentioned the weight. It’s not practical to carry this around in my bag unless it’s the only thing in there. I also had an issue with the size of the mouth opening where I drink from it. It’s of a size that bumps my nose which means that sometimes I don’t get as much as I’d like in a sip or I get too much and it spills down my chin (and shirt).

There are three additional reasons why I wouldn’t take this bottle on the road with me, especially when I’m driving. Aside from the spill-prone size of the opening, you also have to unscrew the lid and take it completely off in order to drink from it — no quick-flip opening like most sports bottles have. This isn’t practical or safe when driving. (Dear Bamboo Bottle, if you had a sippy spout, you’d be game changing). Lastly, and very importantly, the bottle doesn’t fit well in any of the cup holders I tried in our spaceship Toyota Sienna minivan, which has never had any problems with any cups or bottles we’ve tried before. The base of the Bamboo Bottle was too big and non-tapered, but that doesn’t mean it won’t fit in many cars.

But, all that said, I truly love this bottle! The Zen-inspiring bamboo sheath alone is worth the price of admission. Functionally, it’s fitting for around the house (I love using mine with my glass straw). If I worked in an office, it would work fine and be quite the talking piece — it’s so cool…  just put your morning organic java or fresh pressed green juice in it before leaving the house. Then, enjoy the beverage once you arrive at your destination, in addition to reusing it throughout the whole day with refills of coffee, tea, water, or whatever beverage you desire.

On the whole, I recommend the Bamboo Bottle because of its statement, its durability, and its beauty. I’m glad I have one. I would also love to see Bamboo Bottle make a travel-friendly version that’s tapered to fit in an automobile cup holder and has a sippy straw or flip-style opening that can be operated with one hand, like most bottles sold at Starbucks. If it had these, I’d buy a couple instantly. And if it were just a little lighter, it would be my version of Bottle Nirvana!

In preparation for her birthday, I was asked, mostly by family, “Will you be having a birthday cake?”

My response, “Why would I give her a sugar filled cake?”

Kamea has been primarily consuming breastmilk for the past year, exclusively breastfed for the first 8 months. Since then it’s primarily breastmilk along with some pure and healthy whole foods, many of which are raw, introduced slowly to taste and play with. It’s only now, around 12 months, that she actually takes a few bites of things. We’re more or less following Baby Led Weaning so I make things available. Sometimes she’s interested and sometimes she’s not. There is one thing she seems especially fond of… my delicious nutrient filled smoothies.

No apologies here for not giving Kamea something filled with sugar just because it’s her birthday. I know some of my family rolled their eyes at me, but come on… she’s one! I see no reason to load her itty bitty system with processed sugary crap, I mean shit, I mean stuff. Some of you might wonder why I didn’t make her a raw vegan birthday cake. I opted not to do that because that would’ve been filled with dates and nuts, better than the traditional cake to be sure(!), but it’s not something she would’ve truly enjoyed – she only has about 7 teeth in the front and wouldn’t chew well on hard items like nuts. Plus, we haven’t ventured much into nut territory yet. She’s had some sips of almond milk and cashew milk, and she recently has taken a liking to hemp seeds (yeah! so good for babes), but that’s pretty much it.

So… how did we celebrate her beautiful birthday in my counter culture style? We took her for a special birthday gourmet raw vegan SMOOTHIE at Chef Sara’s Raw Cafe. Her smoothie was filled with fresh coconut, coconut water, spices, and other wonderful goodies that are perfect for her digestive system. We also had a fabulous raw lunch there. It was so good! New York might have Pure Food & Wine, but we have Chef Sara’s Raw Cafe. I can’t wait to go back!!!

Here are some photos. We had some from the restaurant, but I’m waiting for Greg to send me those. In the meantime…

Answer: Actually, I breastfed exclusively for so long that she’s at an age now where I usually just share what I’m eating with her, while getting the majority of her calories still from breastmilk. At that young age, you could start with simple raw organic foods like peeled apple, banana, or avocado. I’m more or less following baby led weaning. Even with that though… I still keep pieces uber small because she only has a few teeth. She’s not using sippy cups or anything like that. When I share my smoothie with her, I use a spoon or a teeny tiny cup (the kind you might use with mouthwash, it’s BPA free)

I also recently wrote a blog post for Raw Moms discussing a bit about our practices. It should be on their website on July 1.

Do any of you moms have additional advice?