This Stage

People have a knack for asking me if I like 'this' stage of babydom.

Are you asking me about the stage of I can't let mama out of my sight-not-even-in-my-home stage?
The crawling trying to toddle stage?

The I am sooooo busy with my toys (while you sit next to me on the floor so I can play) that I cannot nap...ever stage.

 And yet I cannot sleep at night because I'm practicing my mad crawling skills even while attempting to be unconscious stage?

How about the multiple bruises and contusions because I'm a hazard to myself stage?

 Or the I want to nurse at night and you must keep a part of your breast in my mouth to keep me semi-asleep stage?

Teeth, any takers on the teeth?

Ummmm, no.  I really don't like this stage of babydom.  The babe is a danger to himself.  I can vaccuum and yet within a half hour I am fishing something out his mouth, and where he found it is beyond me!  Or he needs to be picked up and held but seconds later is lunging out of my arms for something *amazing* on the floor.  Cannot tell you the amount of times I've barely held on, and he's kinda small!

But still, there are wonderful moments where we get past the crankiness and daily grind of developing a smallish one and have beauty.  And giggles.  And chasing the bigish ones down the hall.  And feeding the dog from the highchair.  And laughing while 'petting' the dog.  And bringing joy.

I'm fairly certain that Wesley's purpose in life is to bring joy.  I have not met a happier babe.  And he can make anyone smile.   Tonight he kept crawling over to a very shy little girl, pulling up on her chair, and grinning, grinning, grinning.  I leaned over and whispered to her, I think he likes you.  She giggled, and away he crawled.

I love watching my kids play.  The girls had made a house out of a box and they were all playing in it together.  Peek-a-boo through the windows, peels of laughter.  And my heart smiled.

He's becoming more of the brother, and less of the baby.  He gets in on more of the playtime action with the sisters.  Lizzi wants him to sleep with her.  I would like this too, but oh man, 'this' stage...

'This' stage is gonna break me and build me all at the same time.  But so long as he flashes me more of his award winning smile I know I'll make it through.

Swinging Spring Skirts

One of my first sewing projects was taking some leftover fabric from the girls' quilts and making them some skirts.  I was going to wait until Easter until I realized that how far off that would be!  So we waited  until the first day of spring instead.  I told my friends that we would be wearing our new skirts, even if it was snowing out.  I sure am glad that the weather cooperated and acted like spring might actually think about coming this year!

I did not have any fabric for myself at home to make a new skirt, so I went to Joann's instead and checked out the clearance racks.  I found this pretty fabric for $3/yd, aaaaand I got the last yard on the bolt, so you know it was meant to be!  So for a 'grand' total of around $7 the lady-folk of our house got something new to wear.  Can't beat that!

Happy Spring Everybody!

tutorial for the skirts pictured found here:
http://grosgrainfabulous.blogspot.com/2009/06/20-minute-simple-skirt-tutorial-and.html

Elaine's Cupcake Cookies

Today I got the fancy notion in my head to make mini cupcakes.  We were going to a game night party at a friends and I imagined bringing the cutest little mint chocolate cupcakes that people could walk by and pop in their mouths.

Everything started off great, the batter came along nice, I cooked them perfectly, and then it all went downhill from there....

Apparently cupcakes rise a whole lot more than my muffins do, so they spilled over the top of the muffin tin.  I tried to get them out in one piece, but wasn't meeting with much success.





So then I started intentionally lobbing off the tops in hopes of having something to take to the party with me.  Which reminded me of the Seinfeld episode where Elaine tries to start a muffin top business.  So in honor of that show, I named these after her and her (un)success




Then I took my cupcake tops and frosted them, but they looked so boring being white.  And sadly enough, I don't have any sprinkles in the house.  I know horrors of horrors not having sprinkles as a mom!

Phil told me to add some food coloring to my extra frosting and add some decorative touches to the 'cookies' to jazz them up a bit.  Yeah....he was talking to the girl who in 28.5 years of life has yet to successfully decorate a cake.  Got the frosting colored nicely, but couldn't get it to look nice so I handed the froster tool over to him and left the kitchen.

I gotta admit by this point I was so disappointed and grumpy at what was rapidly becoming my failure of a project that I had to escape and blow some steam.  So I went to my desk and cut apart some conversation starter cards.  After my hands got tired I went back to see how Phil was doing.

He wasn't having a whole lot of success either.  My frosting was too thick for the decorator, so he tried adding some milk.  But that made it too runny, so he tried adding some flour.  In the end, he did manage to get to them look decent enough to take to the party.

The sad story doesn't end there.  While loading up the kids in the van, the platter makes it out but gets knocked over and Elaine's Cupcake Cookies get dumped on the floor of the van.  The frosting gets smudged and we deemed them too embarrassing to take to the party.

But there is hope for these poor sad goodies.  The hostess told me to turn them into cake balls.  A practical solution to all the 'bottoms' that I have left and a whole platter of tops too.  So perhaps tomorrow there will be a happy ending after all!

Bruises, Blood, and Boys

Everyone keeps telling me how different boys are from girls, and tonight I got my first true taste of that!  Wesley fell and bunked his head on the zipper of his jacket (of all things!) and started bleeding.  Once I got the bleeding stopped I took a look at the wound itself.  It looked deep enough to cause me concern, so off we trotted to the prompt care office.  After a very un-prompt wait (75mins) the doc declared it to be fine so long as I faithfully apply soap and water followed up with triple antibiotic cream for a few days.

Poor kid's gonna look like he got beat up since yesterday he knocked his head into the corner of the wall and already has a bruise from that.  All this and he's not even walking yet!

Boy oh boy....

Warm Curried Red Lentil Salad

About the only thing I like when Phil works 12+ hr days is that I can try out a new recipe that I know he probably wouldn't be interested in trying.  So while soaking in some warm afternoon sunshine I was flipping through epicurious on my phone.  I found this recipe that inspired me to create the spin off that we had for supper tonight:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Curried-Red-Lentil-Kohlrabi-and-Couscous-Salad-360049

I figured that the girls would immediately reject it, but once we added some salt and pepper it was all 'mmm's from there to the bottom of the bowl.  Next time I'm going to figure out how to either decrease or leave out the oil as I personally didn't like how heavy it was, oh, and maybe add some sunflower seeds for crunch.

For our dressing:
1/2 c. white cooking wine
2 cloves minced garlic
1.5 Tbsp curry
2/3 c canola oil
few dashes red wine vinegar

I boiled 2 c frozen peas and 2 c red lentils and then rinsed under cold water for a minute

In another pan I cooked 1c israeli whole wheat couscous.

To assemble salad:
put desired amount of baby spinach on plate, top with equal amounts of pea/lentil mixture and couscous, top with dressing (not all of it or you'll drown your plate!)
Add salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste.
Enjoy!

Spring Rolls and Pad Tai

Yesterday I went to the oriental/mexican market with a friend.  Can  you say a foodie's cornucopia?!?  I had to practically hold my jaw up off the floor with all the amazing foods that I've read about but never had the pleasure to behold in person!


Baby Bok Choy, Coconut Cream, Palm Sugar, Lemon Grass, Curries of every color of the rainbow, Fresh Tofu, a whole isle dedicated to sauces.  Rice noodles, udon noodles, spring roll wrappers, rice, rice and more rice.  There was even a whole shelf of vegetarian 'meats'--chicken, duck, fish, chop suey.  It was laughable, and yet I bought a mock chicken for kicks.  Of course there was plenty that tickled Phil's fancy (we went back as a family today)--fresh shrimp and fish, frog legs, crab legs.

After enjoying perusing the isles, the adults settled on ingredients for tofu spring rolls, pad tai, and coconut ice cream.  The children got to try Japanese Udon noodles, peach nectar, and fried plantain chips.

I am glad that Phil and I tag teamed in the kitchen, as it ended up being a very laborious process.  Phil cooked the tofu (I know, rub your eyes again, but he really did!), and the shrimp.  Did I mention that the shrimp were intact and in full uniform?  Pretty disgusting little buggers, and once again, I'm grateful to be a vegetarian.  I chopped the greens for the rolls and made the pad tai.

Of course I realized that ice cream didn't get its face on film.  But just imagine a small bowl of creamy white goodness and you know what we had :)

Here's the recipe that I found somewhere on the internet (sorry to the inventor that I didn't take note of where I found your creamy delight when I wrote it down) .  I love, love, love the fact that it is just a mix and make.  I'm very impromptu about ice cream.   All of the sudden a craving hits, and I don't want to cook up and cool down a mixture and wait.  I'm a 'want it now' ice cream kinda girl.  And this fit the bill quite nicely.


3 cups coconut cream (two 13.5oz cans works fine)
1 scant cup sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped OR 2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp liqueur or rum (your favorite variety)


This is veeeeeeeerrrry rich, so a teensy dish will do you juuuust fine.  Well there you have it, our little Vietnamese feast, and delish it was!

Food Styling and Photo Credits to my honey Phil

Vegan Lasagna

Since I've got this head cold turned sinus infection I've given up dairy in hopes to help clear it all up.  Small dilema, Lasagna was on the menu and I don't 'do' tofu except at restaurants.  So I sucked in my checks and gave it a whirl.  Turned out pretty and tasty.  Too bad I'm so congested I didn't think to take any pictures to show off my yummy creation.

For the sauce I just took a can of crushed tomatoes and added italian seasoning, onion powder, garlic, chunks of roasted red peppers, and pieces of sun dried tomatoes.

It was the 'cheese' layer that was a bit more tricky.  I usually blend cottage cheese with baby spinach into what my sister titled green goop.  I knew that I wanted the spinach still, but what to blend with it?!  I settled on a bean creamed spinach recipe from epicurious that I modified.

1 Tb olive oil
1 c chopped onions
2 c navy beans
1/2 c water
1 tsp powdered bullion
1/8 tsp nutmeg
2 Tbsp lemon juice
black pepper
1/4 c green olives
1 handful baby spinach

I think that even I was surprised by the depth of flavor to the sauce.  I'll credit that to the olives, I've found they are the best stand in for when I'm wanting some cheese, especially feta.

It was definitely best the first time straight out of the oven as the bean sauce got a bit dried out when reheated.  Still tasty and satisfying overall!

Ahhh Internet

Our internet had been acting up for a while, and again I am blessed to be partnered to someone who can do something about it!  This week I have pretty much been sans internet, and while I didn't have time to miss it on Monday, I did yesterday and today.

After numerous hours of work and tests, Phil found out that it was our service provider.  So we switched services.  He asked me if I cared.  Me?  Nope, so long as it works and I don't have to do anything about it, I will be happy.

So here I am, happy to be on the internet once again.  I told Phil that I could live without it, but my existence wouldn't be very pretty.  I am constantly searching for new recipes, checking in on my friends, learning about home remedies and all things pregnancy and birth related (no I'm not pregnant, it's just a subject I'm interested in!).  These are all things I can't get anywhere else (nope, not even my library), and I would miss it greatly.  Oh, and did I mention that we don't watch TV?  That's because Hulu.com has all of my favorite shows, and with 'limited commercial interruptions' I'm not missing out on anything.

So while I'd love to write up lots of fun and witty words, I'm going to go and soak up some information from my internet.  Ahhh, internet, I've missed you :)

The End Of Exclusivity

Today marks the last day of Wesley being exclusively breastfed.  Tomorrow is a huge day (well, at least for me!) as he will get to try his first taste of food.  I settled on sweet potatoes for him.  I'm hoping the color will be appealing enough for him to put it in his mouth instead of chucking it on the floor.

All week long I have been admiring his little fat rolls.  Marveling, I suppose, at how my body has nourished his for nine months.  Wesley might be small and compact, but he has little fat rolls in the cutest places.  The usual inner thigh, hand and ankle pudge.  The one that really makes me smile is the knees.  I never noticed my girls' knees.  I'm sure they had knee pudge, b/cuz my kids all look alike and have been the same size at each milestone.  I was so excited for what was to come that I didn't bother relishing the today with my girls.

I don't know if God will bless us with more children, so I'm just trying to soak in every moment of Wesley's babyhood.  Which probably explains some of the wistfulness over his first foods.  I realize that time marches on, change is inevitable, babies grow up.  It's just so quick!  I'm not ready.  Not ready for another plate to fix and mouth to wipe, not ready for the way the diapers will change, not ready for this new step towards independence.

This poem sums it up nicely.

I know I look so big to you,

Maybe I seem too big for the needs I have.

But no matter how big we get,

We still have needs that are important to us.

I know that our relationship is growing and changing,

But I still need you. I need your warmth and closeness,

Especially at the end of the day

When we snuggle up in bed.

Please don't get too busy for us to nurse.

I know you think I can be patient,

Or find something to take the place of a nursing -

A book, a glass of something,

But nothing can take your place when I need you.

Sometimes just cuddling with you,

Having you near me is enough.

I guess I am growing and becoming independent,

But please be there.

This bond we have is so strong and so important to me,

Please don't break it abruptly.

Wean me gently,

Because I am your mother,

And my heart is tender.

~ Cathy Cardall

Green Dreams

For some time now Phil and I been wondering what's the protocol regarding the trash dumpster.  Do we have to take it to the curb each week if it's not full?  Is it rude to not put it out since we are the only customers on the block?

You see, we only generate a bag or two of trash each week.  So this is a conversation that goes on each week.  Phil sees it more of a waste of time and energy since the dumpster's not filled.  I feel obligated to take it down, since they make the 'effort' to come.  I'm hoping it has become second nature by now for the driver, because for a few weeks in a row I had to call and remind the company to come to our house!

Now my recycling dumpster is a whole other story.  Feel free to think that I'm off my rocker, (my family does!) but I am a recycling nut.  I have to take out my recycling bin every day or two.  I love how easy my service is here in Grand Island.  No bagging or sorting, just chuck it all in the dumpster.  It's like the lazy lady's dream come true. And for a 90 gallon container we get it pretty full some weeks.

My green dream for the summer is to be trash free.  I should make the clarification of 'outside of home renovation projects'.  Since I make almost all meals from scratch, I can recycle the packaging.  The trash that our family generates should hopefully all be compostable.
I have an automatic composter guilt tripping me from the corner of the garage.  It's been sitting there since we moved in.  And I payed a pretty penny for that baby.  So as soon as the ground is thawed I plan on getting the girls to dig me some dirt to get it cooking again.

Hello compost and a happier garden this summer, goodbye guilt over tossing it in the trash!

Reality check--yup, just a dream--but dreams do come true once in a while, especially if I try hard enough to accomplish them.

Quick Sick Soup

When I became Wesley's human Kleenex on Saturday, I knew I was biding my time until I got his cold.  Today I am in the full flurry of a head cold, and am I thankful that we bought Puffs Plus in bulk recently!

Whenever I am sick I always want soup.  It's the end of our grocery month and my cupboards are getting bare.  Not a can of soup to crack open in sight.  Probably just as well, because I wouldn't be able to decide on what to have anyways.  I didn't have enough foresight to start something earlier in the morning, so I figured I'd just throw some 'stuff' in the soup pot.  Not only did it turn out good, it met all of my cravings--sweet, salty, hot.
I don't like naming food that I whip up, because somehow the title just becomes a long run-on ingredient list instead of something catchy.

Here's what I whipped up on the fly:

1 can cream style corn
12 frozen tater tots
1/2 cup broth
1/2 tsp curry powder

Put it all in my soup pot, brought to a boil, and then took the masher tool to it.  This worked nicely to break up the tots.  Dump in bowl and dip in spoon.  Bring to mouth, enjoy, and repeat until finished!