Monthly Archives: November 2020

Bought Baby Food VS Homemade Baby Food

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When my partner and I decided to start a family one of the first things we talked about was baby food being made at home or store bought. It wasn’t even a debate we both obviously choose to do the at home route. Sure it did require more work than grabbing a jar and opening and heating it. You had to plan ahead, prep the food, cook it and blend/puree it for your little human. BUT, It was a lot cheaper and healthier than the store made/brand made. Did you know we bought a jar of baby food approximately April or May of 2020 and and it expires the following year. That does not feel right for us to be feeding whatever substance was in there but we couldn’t complain about the convenience so through we would have a few jars on hand just in case we had a situation where we needed to give him food.

Homemade experience for me has to be fair, been pretty great. Before I had moved to Quebec I worked as a Residential Councillor Assistant. Where I worked in homes with adults who have difficulties ranging from mental to physical. I had to puree some of my clients foods there so when I thought about doing it at home It really wasn’t that hard as long as you unstuck the blades and have patience to not completely water down the food before it is fully pureed!

Making homemade baby food seems easy. And even though it does take time it really is easy! We started with carrots and sweet potatoes with our son. Then we moved on to peas and green beans and green peppers as well. We never added meat til he was a bit older. He loved veggies, Oh and we also did squash and turnip too! But depending on how those are mixed he isn’t always a fan! When I cook things I made sure to over cook them. Remember from a previous blog I don’t really eat a lot of fruits or veggies HOWEVER this is something I do know by looking how cooked they are or how they should feel. A friend of mine said their doctor said also if the veggie is green to use the water from it to puree, however if it was orange or whatever else color to throw it away. We followed this advice too. We never puree mixed veggies together as we like to mix and match cubes for his meals and if we were to put say squash and turnip together that would be weird having to use those cubes all the time. We also use the same trays so that way it really can help when measuring and figuring out if he is eating the same amount to add another cube or not too.

Pureeing meat can be tough, Again based on my previous job I was doing this quite frequently but to my boyfriend who never really seen it before he described it looking like cat food. When a friend of mine was telling me about how to make baby food, she suggested that to do chicken breasts or say stew beef in a crock pot. Add some stock with it and put it on for the day. The juices help when pureeing and it also makes the meat very tender so you can blend it quite easily.

Thankfully, with Covid we don’t go anywhere so my experience with store baby food is limited. When covid was low here and travel wasn’t frowned upon, we went to visit and introduce our son to my partners parents. They live about 2.5 hours away. Sure, we could have fitted out a small cooler for the ice cubes. Instead we thought for the obvious convince why not bring a jar. I’m not even sure if he was old enough for protein yet! Lunch time came around to prep his food. The instructions were simple enough. Just put in a bowl, heat, serve. Do not heat in jar as it heats unevenly. I went to dump the jar into his bowl and whoa, It was so watery I’m not sure how people give it to their babies. It was for sure smooth but I have no idea how parents give it when the “sauce” barely stays on the spoon. It was so close to water my boyfriend even asked if I added too much when I jokingly said “No, no.. This is straight from the jar”. For convenience, sure, but anything else I feel like it was just not the quality, texture, or thickness that I would like to give my son or future kids either. Not to mention I think it is about a dollar a jar. This means if you give your child (as they grow) a jar or a few a day, it will become super costly. Not including biscuits or other purees or snacks that you give to your ever growing child.

Also before closing, if time is something you are worried about, don’t be! Friends of ours whose son is 2 months older than my son are simply pureeing food they eat for supper. Which essentially just a few moments at dinner times to prepare. My boyfriend and I eat at weird times and you all know my eating habits. Thankfully my partner has a lot better food habits than myself but with his job and or time we still do cubes. I make different cubes all at once over a weekend and it typically lasts for the month or so depending how much of a particular fruit or veggie we get. Remember once froen the cubes can last about 3 months too. Though I have never had them stay in there that long, we normally used them up.

Few tips I would suggest is:
– If you have a blender, you wont need to go get a food processor. A blender is what we used and it works fine. Just do not over fill as it will be harder to get the texture you want because you will always be pushing the chunks to the bottom.
– Add water SLOWLY, Once you add too much water it is hard to go back. So add it slowly to not over add.
– Things like blueberries, strawberries, cooked green peppers will not likely require much water if any because they are so watery. You just might need to stir a bit more to move the chunks around.
– If it is a green vegetable, keep the water from it to use to mix things a bit smoother.
– Also if possible, get ice cube trays that are the same size (or super close) so that way you can judge if your child is eating more or less of something.

Other than that, I would suggest just trying it out and seeing! If someone was to ask me which I would say to do, hands down making baby food at home is the best thing, for multiple reasons. Sure, it may take longer then opening a jar, but in the end it is totally worth it!

-StaySeeJ08

I struggle with weight loss.

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As you may or may not know based on the MANY blogs I have wrote about this, Weight loss for me is hard. For more reasons than I would like to admit. Before I start, This is not a way for me to make excuses and what not. This is me putting out my struggle with my weight in to the world to see if I can make changes, Be held accountable. And maybe if you decide to follow the journey that I am going to be doing you will be inspired to figure out your own healthy lifestyle in the process as well too!

I am a very picky eater. In fact, There is probably more that I don’t eat than things that I do. From meat, The only things I eat there are processed fish sticks, chicken nuggets, chicken breast and sometimes different parts of a chicken and hotdogs ( if you even call it meat) and bacon.. Which obviously I do not eat really that often. I do like some nuts and seeds though so that helps. As far as veggies go, I eat potatoes very rarely and sometimes sweet potato fries. Fruits I don’t eat anything. I will drink orange juice or apple juice and VERY rarely smoothies but it really depends on how I feel for that as well. I would say I love pastas and cheese and dairy but anything really different I just do not eat complicated “adult” meals. As a kid I did eat a lot more but as I got older my parents went with the “Don’t eat this no dessert” And I just never had dessert. No one was forcing me! It also is a texture thing for me as well. I don’t eat certain things because they are too “gooey”. This is probably why I don’t like pudding or jello as well. It boggles my boyfriends mind that I will drink a David’s Tea blend with dried fruits and things but I wont eat the fruit itself. It is a little weird right?

Also before you are all “BuT wHy DoNt YoU JuSt EaT tHiNgS” it really isn’t that simple at all. I have almost an anxiety over trying new food. If I want to try something I have to mentally prepare for it for at least a few days and how I will make it. I also have a thing with sizes. When I see a whole chicken breast I feel like it is just SOO much to eat at once. But if I was to chop that same chicken breast up into small pieces and say pan fry it with some honey garlic sauce that would be more appealing to me. As far as meat goes, I have no desire really to eat a burger or steak while pork just sounds gross to me. I wouldn’t ever be a vegetarian however I would be down for mostly being one I guess?

I am my own worst enemy. I eat when I am happy and I eat when I am sad. I eat when I am bored and I eat when I am busy. And Im not talking meals Im talking like I am just snacking on chips, chocolate, junk food, and all mindless. A big setback for me is I smoke weed. I can do extremely well all day counting calories and really hammering down on working out and as soon as I have a puff I ruin it in the span of an hour and a half. Which is not healthy on more levels than one. Going forward I will only be smoking on days that I record one of my baked beauty and the occasional weekends as well too. I need to stop munching so much if I am unable to control myself. Its not worth it. I need to have self control and really get back to basics. I also need to focus on doing things with my hands which I got some new plastic canvas and have been killing pinterest for patterns and things as well too.

As I sit here writing this I had previously wrote half of the blog and wrote the other half now, I am a bit buzzed and ruined my calories in the span of about 45 minutes. I really need to be strict with myself. I don’t even think I would say half the problem is smoking weed. I would say its that I love candy and chocolate and eating it is well, I’m sure you can understand. This weekend when this releases on November 14th, I will be for sure planning my recording days til the end of the year. That way I can have designated days where I have a puff. Soon enough as well my boyfriend will be going back to work and since I don’t smoke in the day or when I am alone with my son I won’t be smoking as much. We will both be taking a day on the weekend to sleep in but through the week we have to be up early and I don’t want to be super beat and tired for that! (I am tired writing this since I was up at 5am though! haha)

I can do this. I have high goals. Here they are. It wont be easy but it will be so rewarding when I get there. Currently I am approx 239.9 pounds. I know. It disgusts me as well.
By the end of November Id like to be under 230 pounds.
By the end of December I would like to be under 220 pounds.
By the end of January I would like to be under 210 pounds.
I am speaking this into existence and hopefully it will trigger something to really hammer down and help me be motivated in this. I need to get this done before we have another baby. When they talk about sugar and things being addictive they really are. And until you are addicted to it, you never really know!

Thanks for reading, I will try my best to do this! And document progress. Maybe what I learn and do will help others!

-StaySeeJ08

When I First Smoked Weed

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Before I get into this remember.
If you are in a place where weed is ILLEGAL please please please do not smoke/eat/dabble in this. You can get in trouble depending on the laws that you have. I live in Canada and though it might be legal now at one point it as not. Laws are there to abide by and not to break .. If you know what I’m saying. So if you are thinking this is a way for me to endorse smoking up before you are of legal age in the country or state or province that you live in that is not the case here. Use your brain, seriously!

The first time I smoked weed was when I was 16 years old. I know, I know I basically broke the whole first paragraph of this blog post but I think the story will be HILARIOUS and well worth it. I do not recommend if you are this age to start smoking weed. If you were to ask me why I started or what promoted me. Honestly, I have no idea. It just happened. You could say it was a bit of peer pressure and I felt like being new to high school I wanted to fit in somewhere and well why not try being a stoner, everyone likes stoners!

One day after school I had headed down to a person I had just met, Andrew. Well I mean he was new to my school so I had talked to him and we were friends but it was just when the year started. Nothing like Junior high or whatever friends. I never met his Mom before but as soon as I got there he said he kind of wanted to get high. Now, me being SUPER naive I was like Oh.. How and do you have any? His mom grew this little weakling of a plant that he took some from. It obviously wasn’t dried or anything and was tough to smoke but it did the job. I remember us jamming to some Eazy-E remix of How we do. Then there was the “smokers” from my school who popped over to his house. It was a bit awkward for sure since I never hung around with that crowd but they came up for a bit and left. To be fair I am pretty sure we even SMOKED IN THE HOUSE! Like honestly, what was I thinking ?! But here we are.

Now some time has passed. How much I don’t know. I think my mom was working til 8pm. Well, We got a SURPRISE. His Uncle showed up!! Here is the kicker though. My mom did this “stitch” night every Tuesday and there was a woman there who she knew and she also bowled with her every week too. My friend Andrew’s Uncle was HER HUSBAND! So he totally knew who I was! And I don’t mean he was like someone who MIGHT know who I was, I mean he knew. We used to go to their house because they had train tracks behind their house and a lake so we would walk down and then we would swim to the dock for a bit while my mom and her would talk on the shore line. Like this was not a friend who randomly we would see my mom would catch up and that was it for another year. I mean she seen her once if not twice a week REGULARLY for a very very long time!

As you can imagine this has now become one of my worst nightmares and worst fears. He starts calling me by my name. Questioning me. Now there was a lot of times I lied to my parents for harmless things. This was one of the first times so I was completely unprepared. Not to mention thrown off guard as well. His uncle asked “Why was there smoke and it smelled like weed in here”. Andrew was a pro and simply said that the people who stopped over for a visit was smoking it and it wasn’t us. I don’t think he believed us for a second. I kind of went along with Andrew with whatever he said even if it wasn’t believable one bit. Then his uncle said I should call my mom. Which I did stupidly. I should have walked home. The worst part is that he basically knew who I was before I knew who he was! Due to the fact he was normally working whenever we would visit his wife.

Once my mom picked me up it was extremely awkward the drive home. She questioned me the entire time. ARE YOU HIGH? DID YOU SMOKE WEED? I said the same thing, I never smoked any but he had friends who had come over and did smoke some. Obviously I smelled like it so there really was no denying that part of anything. She then questioned why I was stumbling over my words and stuttering and had dry mouth. Again, This was my FIRST TIME smoking weed so I was in no means a professional that I am today not to mention I never knew the side effects either! Once we got home I think i went to my room and stayed there. I couldn’t even tell you if I did anything else, Maybe I had a shower? Maybe I went to bed? I really don’t remember that part anymore!

So there you have it, The first time I smoked weed. You would think something like that would completely turn me off from smoking since I legit almost or kind of got caught smoking but it didn’t. I just became more secretive and was better at lying. I didn’t see it as a problem as I was never lying to hurt anyone and I wasn’t always flat out lying, I just was dancing around the truth really! Instead of going to a basketball game for the school one night I would be going with a friend to smoke weed in the park.

The Great Remembrance Day and Christmas Debate

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In Canada every single year around this time of year we see the great debate about whether or not you should put up your Christmas decorations before Remembrance Day or should you wait til after to do so.

Remembrance Day to Canada would be the same as Memorial Day in the USA, I do believe, Where you take a moment to remember all the fallen soldiers in the wars that have fought to protect the freedoms and rights of the people in our country. Normally around the country there is different ceremonies taking place (However with Covid-19 I don’t know how many are really doing different things or if they are going to be virtual as well). At 11am we take a few moments of silence where we really reflect on this. I am sure that there is also a lot of folks who don’t participate and well, that is their right to not take part. This is also why you may see on Canadian news stations that the broadcasters are wearing poppies. This has to do with the poem Flanders Fields and remembering as well. That is a whole different blog post though.

Now here is the juicy drama. In Canada at least, Every year there is many people who have nothing better to do then to complain about the decorations being put out too soon. They say this for many reasons, One being that it takes away from Remembrance Day. Apparently if you decorate your home with Christmas lights and decorations you magically lose your memory and ability to remember fallen soldiers. I know, Crazy right. Actually crazy. Another reason is we so much want to commercialize the holidays. Since apparently every year right after Halloween you see Christmas Decorations earlier and earlier. I can see the argument of it being so early to jump from Halloween to Christmas. The stores and shops even have things started before Halloween is over by making their aisles blank and prepped for all of the Holiday things to be placed on the shelves waiting for suckers like me to come in and dump loads of money (Maybe not loads) on new things to decorate with every year. They would basically have a skull that screams when you walk by next to a batch of Christmas Tree lights or ornaments too.

If you notice, Or haven’t, I freaking LOVE Christmas. I decorate right after Halloween. The magic that is Christmas makes me feel extremely happy and when its over I am ready for my own place again. That being said. I don’t judge if people want to wait or put them up like I do. I put and have put them up every year on November 1st. Outside especially because normally the longer you wait the colder it gets and what fun would it be to put up Christmas lights in minus 20c. Not a lot. Not to mention I love gifting and prepping. Since I was a child I have loved it. Do I care what people say, No. I normally post a photo on Facebook about the tree being up and what not and I see the same people every year saying “Oh it is too early and its not right”. I even start on the posts to be reminding people about the golden rule, “If you have nothing nice to say don’t speak”, as my mom would remind me all the time. I even see people tag me in post saying if you decorate early than Santa kills an elf or something like that. Insert a HUGE eye roll here.


Fun Fact: If you were to ask the older generation about their thoughts for the decorating prematurely for the holidays. Chances are they wont really care. They went to war and to fight for our freedom. If they were to care that would be a bit hypocritical right. They don’t mind if they see decorations and things. They want us to show who we are and if we love Christmas and decorations why not show that off! There has even been articles online that I am sure you can find about people asking Veterans what their thoughts are because this is such a controversial subject up here that people just had to know what they thought about it. My grandfather was a vet and mind you, He would probably say it is super early for the decorations to be up, But I don’t think he would really mind or give someone a hard time about it. Not to mention, He tried to beat the system and he would keep his Christmas Lights up all year just unplug them so that he only had to plug them back in again come the next season.

Interestingly enough, in Quebec City apparently the mayor has offered up a refund of sorts to businesses to decorate early as well. For most, Christmas is a time of joy and family. And with Covid-19 around it really isn’t that great either. So by decorating it might make the city look a bit more festive and create some great vibes for everyone around. Not to mention how can you not smile when you are driving or walking around and seeing houses lit up in their own unique way with old school or the newest lights. I know this year my son will be about 9-10 months old and chances are he will fall asleep but we for sure will be doing an evening where we go driving around looking at Christmas lights none the less. Even just to say that we did it would be fun!

So as you can see, Canada has their little fights between citizens as well. Though the issues may not be as cray as some may think. It really is a downer. At the end of the day, Live and let live. Putting your decorations up early is not hurting anyone at all, again I know, crazy right. And if it makes you happy, whose to stand in the way of your happiness right!

-StaySeeJ

What channel bots to use?

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Choosing a bot to stream with can be daunting due to the fact there is really hundreds of bots that have different features and levels of skills required to use them and set them up. Ill be going through the few bots that I have used since I started streaming and ones I am really not a fan of to hopefully help you in making a decision in which to use in your streams!

When I first started streaming (As mentioned in so many blogs previously) I didnt have the monitors or bells and whistles so to speak. I had a TV and my playstation. I had the chat pop up on my screen for a while then switched to having my laptop open with my stream so that I could see what was happening. I started using Vivbot because while I was able to stream from playstation and unable to use overlays (I never got a capture card till way later!) I wanted to use this as it was easy for me to see who was following me so that I was able to thank them for supporting the channel. I also wanted a main bot like Nightbot to put majority of commands that viewers could check out and use when they needed as it wasnt really required to have a PC for it but a lot of streamers seemed to have their stuff and timers there as well too.

Fast forward now, I still use nightbot and the amount of commands it has grown to is INSANE! I try to add the commands that i want to be there forever as it is so versatile. There are commands that are there since my streaming from a playstation day and there are also some that i have added recently. The amount of things that you can do is incredible and whenever i see a cool command from anotehr chat I just take it and put it on my channel. Nightbot, in my opinion has to be one of the most used bots across twitch because it really is user friendly as well too. Now that I am on a PC I also use streamlabs chat bot. I use this for my timers, temporary and perminent as well, and I also use it for my hcat games like heisting and betting too. Its a bit more complicated to set up while I have had a friend do that due to the fact that it had to be connected to an account which I made TheSocietyBot to represent my community that I have. Some people connect them to their own channels and it will post certain things on their behalf, I thought this made the channel a bit better this way!

While finding a bot you should ask yourself what you would like the bot to do. Do you want it to just put out timers or also commands. Do you want it to have games or interactive things as well. Finding a bot that is for you can be challenging however if you know what you want it can narrow down the search. A good practice too is if you notice a bot in someones channel that you watch a lot then you can see the different things that have set up for it also too. I knew I wanted timers, some games for chat and also some commands. Thats why I choose nightbot and streamlabs chatbot which I still use in my streams today. one feature I had no desire to see was the one which shows you every so often the amount of viewers in your chat through the chat. No one wants to see it consinutesly update to 1 or 2 viewers. I also do giveaways quite frequantly on my channel and was looking at something that could be easy to use for giveaways and make it fair for others. I use mainly streamlabs chatbot but nightbot can also do this feature if needed too.

Popular bots that I have seen across twitch is for sure Nightbot, as well as Streamlabs Chatbot. I always still recommend Vivbot as well if someone is unable to have another monitor to have them or overlays to be abel to see alerts rigth on the screen.

As a new streamer I would suggest this: If you choose a bot MAKE SURE it does not post you are live on twitter. If you start this you will feel lay and soon your profile will be the filled with the exact same posts which will be a major turnoff from new potential followers. As mentioned above a particular one I know Wiebot has something that puts in your chat how long you have been live and viewers whether they go up or down every so often. Remove that feature. You do not need to see how your viewers flucuate whether you are new or old at the streaming game. It can be a really big moral boost watching it post you are losing viewers every half an hour. Make sure that you are also aware of what features that the bot you do choose has. If you can choose a bot with more features that you want it will save a lot of time than setting up multiple bots with one feature on each one! I only have had 2 bots going at once and I cannot imagine having more. You also will need to make the bot a mod in your chat in order for it to do certain things. Not to mention as well, If you are new and are not sure who to mod or make a mod set up an auto filter on a bot so that it can help if you only have yourself managing chat or the person or people you have modded arent around!

Regardless of which bot you decide to add to your stream, there really is endless possibilities on which you would like to use for whichever purpose. And if you get sick of one or it changes chances are there will be another that can do all the features you like and more!

-StaySeeJ08 xo