All posts by R.C. Liley

I'm an ex-mutual fund accountant who left the cubicle world to be a stay-at-home dad to my beautiful little girl, Avery, who entered our life on 11/15/13 and handsome little boy, Wes, who joined our family on 11/19/17. Also happily married to my wife, Kelley, as of 8/17/07. Sorry ladies... :) Fitness and nutrition is of the utmost importance in our family and we strive to reflect this in our daily life. I always prepare our meals at home and only go out if it's a special occasion, and even then I tend to not get much. Food should be fun and a joy to eat, not something quickly consumed from a fast food chain or scarf down before the next meeting. I have come from strictly logging high miles to train for the next marathon to keeping exercise varied and focusing more on strength. I still enjoy going for a run when I can, but nothing crazy, and I prefer hill sprints while pushing my daughter, Avery in the stroller. She loves it and I get a great workout! I want to show the world how to appreciate their body and feed it real, wholesome food while moving more throughout the day. In doing so, everyone would be healthier, happier, and we'd all live in a better place as a result. I blog mainly about my life as a stay-at-home dad and frequently include reviews, participate in campaigns, and share my thoughts on fitness and nutrition. If you ever have any questions or thoughts to share, please reach out as I'm always open to listening or helping others however possible. That is, when I have free time since Avery is and my wife are the number one priorities!

Food, Going Healthy, NuttZo, Soft Star Shoes, WIAW

WIAW #8: A Kid’s First Taste of Zevia Soda

04/22/2015 R.C. Liley 4 Comments

Zevia has been the only soda in our home for years now. We still treat it like a…..umm, treat and only have it every now. Even though it’s free from all the nasty stuff in regular and artificially sweetened diet sodas, water is obviously the best choice when it comes to a healthy lifestyle.

The fun-loving, extremely generous folks at Zevia have sent our now 17 month old daughter, Avery, a couple of their shirts. She looks adorable (as always) in the shirts, and she loves playing with the cans.

But I never gave her any to drink until just yesterday. She only has breast milk and water right now, so why not a little naturally sweetened soda for something new? I’m not sure if you can tell, but I think she might be ready to try.

I poured some in her sippy cup and proceeded to take an Instagram video of her first sips. Because, that’s what parents do, right? Capture everything and share across all of social media.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by RC Liley (@going_dad)

There wasn’t much in there, so she finished that pretty quick and was asking for more.

Guess she likes it. And oh man, she’s had some good burps in the past, but add carbonation and it’s a whole new level of belching from our little girl! #ProudDad

Now, how about a little WIAW action! Thanks as always to the wonderful Jenn from Peas and Crayons, for creating this fun link-up for foodies everywhere!

Head over to Clean Eats Fast Feets to join in on this week’s party!

Breakfast – Homemade Cold Brew Coffee and microwave chocolate bread.

Lunch – Shredded chicken with sweet potato, steamed beets and brussels sprouts along with a couple of green olives.

Dinner – This amazing crock-pot chicken chili I literally made by just throwing in all kinds of herbs and spices we had with black and kidney beans and lots of veggies. My girls loved it and so did I, so that’s a win in my book!

Snack – Sounds weird, but I’ve been enjoying this raw sauerkraut on its own lately and had a few bites of this after dinner. Good tasting and good for the gut!

Have you tried or heard of Zevia Soda? What about your kids?

If not already, would you allow your kids to try a stevia sweetened, junk-free soda like Zevia?

Ever snack on sauerkraut?

Earn Income, Parenting

10 Ways Stay-at-Home Moms and Dads Can Make Extra Money-Kiplinger

04/21/2015 R.C. Liley 2 Comments

This article has some great ideas not just for us at-home parents, but for anyone who might be able to take a little more time to earn some side cash. Of course, number 10 is best way!! 🙂

Take a look and let me know if there’s anything you’ve done already or will give a try now.

10 Ways Stay-at-Home Moms and Dads Can Make Extra Money-Kiplinger.

Parenting

Making A Rash Decision and Duct Tape Diapering

04/21/2015 R.C. Liley 4 Comments

Guess we celebrated Avery’s recovery too soon. No more fever, but she started to develop a rash on her lower belly. It was good to see she was back to being active, but her eating was and still is not up to par.

Despite what it looks like in the picture, Avery was not scratching at or even acknowledging her spreading rash. But, Going Mom did enough worrying for the both of them and was worriedly searching Dr. Google for an answer.

Since it was the weekend and the rash didn’t seem severe enough to act immediately, I said we should just wait until Monday and reassess then. My wife, still showing signs of concern, as any loving mother would, agreed to give it time. Meanwhile, she used several forms of home remedies/treatments in hopes the rash would suddenly disappear.

Coconut oil and her homemade solution of essential oils to diffuse may or may not of helped, but her rash was hardly visible by Monday. Phew! Kelley took off from work and neither of us wanted to spend her day off going to the doctor for our poor daughter’s rash. It had already been a long, stressful week for Avery, and an impromptu visit to the doc would only add to it!

In other news, Avery started undoing her cloth diaper again. This happened a few months ago and we used packaging tape as the solution. The tape sucked and fell off easily, so we’ve upgraded to duct tape which seems to work much better.

duct tape cloth diaper — So it’s come to this…..

Or so we thought…..

Apparently you have to duct tape all around or Avery will simply just pull the tape right off. Smart girl. Now she gets duct tape full circle around her cloth diaper.

Like any toddler, she doesn’t make it easy, but handing her the roll helps keep her still long enough just to make sure everything’s secure.

Once she’s all wrapped up, she then likes to get down to rap.

Okay, not really rap, but that’s the only thing that would work for my corny dad pun/joke. So sue me! Actually,please don’t. 🙂

Besides the mystery rash and finicky eating, we had a great family weekend together. Even though Avery didn’t have a fever, I think it was best we didn’t bring her to our friend’s kids’ 2 year old birthday party since she hasn’t been 100% quite yet and we didn’t know whether the rash would spread or not. Instead, we enjoyed playtime and coffee during the day, and a lot of The Walking Dead after Avery’s bedtime.

Seriously, we are hooked for the long haul and almost to season 4 at this point. It’s bad when we set a limit of 2 episodes and end up watching 2 more. The crazy life of parents with a toddler, huh? That said, I enjoy having a good show to get into with my wife, and it’s nice to stay off of the computer and watch something good with her instead.

Really quick before I wrap things up, I went on an hour long run in my new Soft Star Shoes Dash RunAmocs with a bullhide leather sole and find these better than my Moc3’s I reviewed previously. I’ll have a full review of the Dash RunAmocs eventually, but will be running a half-marathon in them on Mother’s Day before publishing anything. Until then, I’ll keep wearing my Soft Stars and Avery will wear hers as we exercise and play together each day!