April Foodie Penpals

I was really excited over Foodie Penpals this month!  It was my first time baking a homemade goodie for MY penpal, Jillian, over at Bites of Balance. Too see what Jillian thought of everything I sent her, go check out her blog!

This month, I was paired up to receive a package from Lisa over at The Daily RUNdown.  She sent me a cute little questionnaire to find out my food preferences, which I thought was very creative!

When I received my package on a Friday night, I was THRILLED to find THIS right on top:

Oh yeah!  That is was homemade whole wheat zucchini chocolate chip bread!!  And made with organic ingredients.  I am not ashamed to admit that this was gone within 24 hours.  It was delicious!!

Next was a handwritten letter:

Lisa included tahini & chick peas, along with a recipe, for hummus.

I still have yet to make it, but it is on my list of must try recipes.

Finally, there was a jar of sun dried tomatoes & peppers...one of my favorite things!!

I was so happy with everything Lisa sent me.  It was such a variety that all my cravings were filled!

Are YOU interested in joining Foodie Penpals?

Here’s a detailed explanation of the program:

-On the 5th of the month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you can choose to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.
- Foodie Penpals is open to US, Canadian residents & UK residents.  Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa. So, I’m going to keep two separate lists and match US w/ US and Canada w/ Canada!

***If you’re in the UK, please contact Carol Anne from This Is Rock Salt at rocksalt@thisisrocksalt.com to get involved!

Top 5 Friday - How To Help A Friend Going Through Infertility

In honor of National Infertility Awareness Week {April 22-28}, I've come up with a list of 5 ways to help those you may know going through infertility.

1. LISTEN - When a friend feels comfortable enough to open up about their infertility, listening is the most important thing you can do.  Chances are your friend is not opening up to everyone about this, so really listen to what they are saying and acknowledge their feelings.  I know that we all have busy lives, so if your friend is not calling at a good time, plan a phone date where you can dedicate some time to them.

2. RESEARCH - You don't need to learn enough about infertility that you can write a book, but find out what exactly they are suffering from and gain enough knowledge to have a better understanding.  When I was first diagnosed, I did my own research and printed out info for my family and I believe I e-mailed info to my close friends.  I wanted to be the one in control of my PCOS, but others may not feel comfortable doing that.

3. KEEP IT TO YOURSELF - I know that it's easy for us women to bring things up in conversation, but this is a BIG no-no.  If your friend wants others to know about her condition, SHE should be the one sharing.  On the other hand, if she asks you to share some details with others, this is okay.  Case in point, I gave my BFF permission to give BASIC info to mutual acquaintances because at parties, etc. I did not want to keep hearing "When are you & Gary going to have a baby?"  I figured if these people knew enough about my PCOS, they would refrain from asking.

4. DON'T COMPARE - Some of you may know more than one person dealing with infertility.  Some of you may even know more than one person dealing with the same infertility condition.  Refrain from saying things like, "Oh, Jane also has PCOS, but after a few months of HCG treatments, her & Joe got pregnant."  Every case is different.

5. BE POSITIVE, BUT IN THE RIGHT WAY - From my last post, you all know how I hate when doctors told me to "just relax."  Infertility is a sucky thing that no one can predict.  There were days when I felt like absolute shit and a disgrace as a wife and a woman.  Those were normally the times I really needed to talk to my BFF.  If she would have said things like "You'll be pregnant in no time," or "Just relax," I probably would not have opened up to her so much.  Instead, she was supportive and acknowledged my feelings {she even let me have MAJOR pity parties at times} and told me that no matter what happened, I was still Mo, that my husband still loved me and that at the end of the day what will be will be.  It's all about perspective people!

I couldn't leave you without sharing this one as well.

6. DON'T STOP TALKING ABOUT YOUR KIDS - Your friend knows you have them, so don't do the weird thing and suddenly act like you don't.  While Gary & I were in the middle of of fertility treatments, my BFF was blessed with becoming pregnant.  I am pretty sure there was some guilt when she called to me her good news knowing it wasn't working the same for G & I on the baby front.  Still, when she called to tell me, that was the 2nd happiest day of my life {Someday I'll have to share my story about how I knew she was pregnant before she called - it's classic}.  Hearing about her pregnancy gave me hope at times and at other times made me a little happy I wasn't pregnant {why don't they tell you in High School about the horrible side of pregnancy?}.  Once my Godson was born, I was the proudest Auntie Mo!  I LOVE hearing about the crazy stuff he does and that will never stop.

I also REALLY want to thank everyone for the support I received over my blog post on Wednesday.  Opening myself up like that was crazy scary, but so worth it in the end!  Your kind words have meant the world to me.

National Infertility Awareness Week - MY Infertility Story

Before I get to sharing my story, here are a few things I want to preface this post with:

1. This post will be LONG...I want to get it all out there.

2. This post may jump all over the place...thank you for sticking with me on it.

3. This post was written in one sitting, with no edits, so I apologize if my grammar, etc. is off.  I felt the best way to write my story was as if I was actually talking to you about it..

So, here we go.....

I've wanted to write this post for a while now, but kept putting it off.  I am not a super private person {I mean, I have a blog, come on now} but my infertility is something I have only shared in depth with a handful of people.

This week {April 22- 28} is National Infertility Awareness Week.  I stumbled up the Resolve website a few weeks ago and knew this would be the week to woman up and write this post.

I guess my infertility problems started back when I was in High School.  By 16, I had only had my period a handful of times, which was strange to me because all my friends had their periods like clockwork.  My doctor at the time looked me over, ran tests and told me I was a normal teenage girl, and the sometimes, when girls are very active {I played school soccer and league soccer from ages 6-19} they don’t menstruate normally.  That said, she did put me on birth control in order to regulate my periods.

Skip ahead 9 years.  I was a newly married 25 year old woman.  I wasn't crazy about having kids that young {yes, that was young to me}, but knew that both Gary & I DID want kids within the next year or 2, so I got off my birth control since I had read that it could take up to 6 months after that to get pregnant.  6 months passed and nothing happened.  Around that time, my mom gave me an article from one of her magazines about an endocrine condition called Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome {PCOS}.  I read it and my gut told me that was what I had.  So I made an appt. with my doctor.  We talked, she ran tests, did an ultrasound and told me that there was nothing wrong with me, and to keep trying. "If you relax, you'll get pregnant."  Ummm....6 months after THAT I went to another doctor, who ran the same tests and told me the same thing.  Do you know how HARD it is to relax when someone tells you to just relax?!?!

It was so frustrating....I KNEW something was wrong with my body, but nobody could tell me what it exactly was.

That next January {I was 26 1/2 at the time} Gary & I had to change insurances.  It took me a few months to even make an appt. with my new doctor because I was afraid she'd tell me to "just relax."  Instead, she sat with me for 45 minutes, going over my whole history.  Within minutes of sharing my story with her, she told me that a 20-something year old woman who was NOT on birth control and sexually active on a regular basis who was not getting pregnant is not okay.  And shame on my other doctors for not looking deeper.  I kid you not, I sat there crying.  Finally there was a doctor who didn't think I was overreacting.

After some tests, she called to tell me I had PCOS {thanks Dr. Mom for that article years ago}.

Within a few weeks, she had me on Metformin and taking Clomid to up my chances of pregnancy.  Every month or so, she upped my dose.  I was charting my temperature every morning and keeping track of everything that could help us in the fertility department.  Still nothing.

This time was really stressful for Gary & I.  Infertility treatments are NOT cheap.  Even with just the Metformin & Clomid, we had to pay about $250 a month out of pocket for each round of ultrasounds {Clomid ups your chance of getting cysts on the ovaries}.  A few times, we had to not do treatments because there were cysts on my ovaries.  My doctor worked with me to make this process as inexpensive as possible, but there's only so much wiggle room.  This was also during a time when Gary & I were taking HUGE pay cuts at work and Gary's trusty Honda died, so we had to buy a used vehicle.  Money was tight to say the least. 

But we made it work...because we had to.

It was a few months later when our lives went from bad to worse. Gary's dad was diagnosed with Esophageal cancer.  Within 3 and a half months, Gary's dad passed.  It was like the ground opened up and swallowed Gary whole.  He was dealing with the grief of losing a father and not being able to have a family.  I was just trying to keep Gary functioning while feeling beyond guilty that my body wouldn't give him the child he deserved.  It was a dark, depressing place for both of us.

After a few more months, my doctor suggested I get a Hysterosalpingogram, which is an x-ray of the fallopian tubes.  What nobody tells you is that it hurts like hell.  I have NEVER been in that much pain before.  It was like someone was cutting up my insides with a machete.  Times a million.  As soon as Gary got me in the car, I told him I am never going to go through that procedure again.  The "good" news was that my tubes were clear and that it supposedly upped my chances of getting pregnant the next month.  My doctor thought since the odds may be higher, we could start HCG shots.  

So in addition to the Metformin, and Clomid {not to forget the Provera that I needed to take to START my cycle}, I was now getting HCG shots in my upper ass.  Oh joy.  Round 1 - No luck.  Round 2 - No luck.  Round 3....there was no round 3.

Between the time of Round 2 &3 Gary and I had a major talk.  We were both tired of trying.  Sex was no longer something we enjoyed because the past 2 years it could only be had on certain days at certain times, certain positions, etc.  Gary was still trying to heal from his father's passing.  We were having a hell of a time affording treatments anymore {which led to more stress}.  We had both gained weight from the stress in our lives.  We were just NOT in a good place anymore, individually or as a couple.

After 2+ years of trying, we were done.

And, secretly, I was thrilled.  I've never felt as emotional and physically drained as I did those years of trying.  I had lost my spirit, my humor, my love of life.  I had become one of those women obsessed with having a baby.

Slowly, I became the woman I had been before and Gary & I went back to being the couple we used to be, but closer, because of all the crap we'd been through.

Fast forward to today...I'm now 31 and still childless.  99% of the time I am okay with this.  1% of me still feels shame that my body can't do what it is supposed to do naturally.  But I don't dwell on it. 

We have an awesome Godson, and a few other kids in our life that we try to spoil the heck out of {then we get to give them back}!!

Gary is going back to school the next few years, so we've kept with our decision to NOT try for children.  We've had many discussions about our options over the past few years.  Some ideas have included adoption or surrogacy.  Right now the idea we've been toying with is choosing to remain childless, but it took a long time to even get to the point of talking about it.  For years I felt that maybe I wasn't enough for Gary - that we needed kids to continue growing our relationship.  I now see that this is soooo far from the truth.

I'm not sure what the future will hold for Gary & I when it comes to children.

What I do know is that no matter what happens, Gary & I will take that journey together.


****for more information about infertility, please go to this link.  Resolve is a GREAT website with a ton of information!***

And The Winner Is........

...............Nikki!!!

Congratulations!  You won the Tropical Traditions Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil.

Trust me, you'll love it!


Please e-mail me at organicallymo@gmail.com with your mailing address.


Thank you to ALL who entered!!  Stay tuned for a different giveaway at Organically Mo within the coming weeks!  :)

Roasted Eggplant

Hey there!  The recipe for Roasted Eggplant has moved to my own domain, Organically Mo.

Thanks for heading over there to get this delicious recipe!

To get to this pin directly, you can click here to repin!  :)

Top 5 Friday - Special Instagram Edition

Top 5 Things I Was Excited About This Week {Illustrated with Instagram Photos}


1. Roasted Eggplant - I have a whole post ready to go about this, but wanted to share my new found love for one of my favorite vegetables.  Sadly, it is getting to hot to run the oven much longer, so I think we'll have to experiment with the BBQ.

2. Grocery Shopping - Am I the only one who loves doing this?!?  I was SUPER stoked when I got all my vegetables for the next week and a half for under $30!

3. Lemon & Lavender - I've been obsessed with using these 2 ingredients in my baking lately.  I'll have to share a recipe very soon!

4. Mogaritas - If you follow me on Twitter, you read this last night: "It's scientifically proven that I consume more mogaritas between Spring Break & the end of school than any other time of the year." I wish I was kidding...wait...no...that's not true either.

 5. PLAYOFF HOCKEY!!  I've been a PROUD San Jose Sharks fan since the franchise started in 1991.  My room between the ages of 13 and 20 was plastered with Sharks {and other NHL} memorabilia.  I wish I could spend as much time as I used to following hockey, but being an adult sucks sometimes and I must spend most of my time doing boring adult things like cooking dinner {not so bad}, paying bills, doing laundry, falling asleep on the couch at 8:17pm....
But once playoffs start, I revert back to the good old days and make the effort to watch every game {even if I have to go to bed before the game ends at 10:30}.

*What was one thing you were excited about this week?*

**Any good weekend plans?**

***Don't forget to enter to win some top of the line virgin coconut oil here!***

Tropical Traditions Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil Giveaway

****THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED*****

I first discovered all the amazing benefits of coconut oil last summer.  It was at that time Gary & I determined we would live the healthiest life possible.  Changing from regular cooking oil to coconut oil was the first in many steps we have made to improve our lifestyle.  I tried many different brands and they all did a good job, but Tropical Traditions was one company that I kept hearing positive things about and REALLY wanted to try!

So when Tropical Traditions gave me the opportunity to try out their Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil, I cannot tell you how excited I was! 

I have enjoyed using this oil for a few weeks now for baking, cooking, even for moisturizing!  I smell like a freaking coconut once it's rubbed into my skin!  :)

Not only was Tropical Traditions kind enough to send me coconut oil to try, they also are giving away a quart of their Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil to one Organically Mo reader!!

Win 1 quart of  Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil!

Tropical Traditions is America's source for coconut oil. Their Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil is hand crafted in small batches by family producers, and it is the highest quality coconut oil they offer. You can read more about how virgin coconut oil is different from other coconut oils on their website: What is Virgin Coconut Oil? You can also watch the video they produced about Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil:

Tropical Traditions also carries other varieties of affordable high quality coconut oil. Visit their website to check on current sales, to learn about the many uses of coconut oil, and to read about all the  advantages of buying coconut oil online. Since the FDA does not want us to discuss the health benefits of coconut oil on a page where it is being sold or given away, here is the best website to read about the health benefits of coconut oil.

Here's how to enter {you can have multiple entries...each entry must be left in a different comment}:


1. Subscribe to the TT email Newsletter here. {let me know you did so in a comment}


2. Follow TTon Twitter @troptraditions {let me know you did so in a comment}


3. "Like" Tropical Traditions on Facebook. {let me know you did so in a comment}


4. Follow me on Twitter @OrganicallyMo {let me know you did so in a comment}


5. "Like" Organically Mo on Facebook {let me know you did so in a comment}


6. Tweet the following: "I want to win @troptraditions from @organicallymo: http://tinyurl.com/7fkuzxx" 


So you have SIX ways to enter this contest!

*Open to all United States & Canada residents*


I must receive all entries by midnight (EST) on Tuesday, April 24, 2012 and the odds of winning are determined by the number of entries received. No purchase necessary to enter. I’ll randomly pick a winner on Wednesday morning.



Disclaimer: Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose.  Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.