Anything Bloggable

It's been a while.

2009-06-07T14:43:00.000-07:00

Brushes the cobwebs away...

I'm still here & will post something soon.

A Huge Favor From Local Friends

2009-02-10T08:37:00.000-08:00

Ok. Moving sucks. Helping friends move sucks donkey balls. BUT!!!! If several people would be willing to show up here on March 1st, which is a Sunday, at say, 1 pm, and help us get moved to our new place, then it would go quickly, and relatively painlessly.
And we will buy pizza and beer and celebrate our new move afterwards in the new place.
We'll rent a U-Haul to load up, and should only have to make one trip. If we have a lot of people to help out, ime, this entire move shouldn't take more than 2 hours total.
We're currently at I-10 & Chimney Rock (close to IKEA) and we're moving to Bellaire & Cook Rd (Chinatown, a mile from Hong Kong City Mall, outside the beltway a couple of miles, right past Kirkwood)

The pros, to entice you! (ha!)
We're not moving our couch or chair from the living room, so that's 2 huge pieces of furniture not to have to move.
We're not moving our ginormous entertainment center, either.
Heavy pieces of furniture will be at a minimum. There's some bulky stuff, but there's not a lot of super heavy stuff.
We have pared down our books extensively.
I am purging at least half of what we own before we move, so there won't be miles of crap.

The Cons, just to be honest:
The new apartment is upstairs. :/
Did I mention it's upstairs?

Sooooo... If you can help us out, I would be VERY VERY grateful. I really hate to ask, as I know helping people move really does suck.

Please let me know if you can help us out.
THANK YOU!!!!

It's a New Year: 2009

2009-01-03T00:53:00.000-08:00

It's already 2009, if you can believe it. I hardly can.

2008 had it's ups and downs, but overall it was good.
The most amazing thing, of course, was the birth of my daughter in July.

I now have a 9 year old, and a 7 year old. It's so cliche, but the time goes so fast.

Max, my oldest, is such a great kid. He is smart and funny, he's really at one of my favorite ages. He's not a little kid any more, but he's not quite into the pre-teen age. He's still a kid, but his understanding of the world is so much wider and has more depth. He's a lot like me, his interests bounce around. He gets really interested in one subject and that becomes his intense focus for a few months, then it moves on to something else. I'm 31 and I still do that.
This year his main interests have been Zelda, pirates, and Pokemon. He is, of course, interested in other things at the same time, and builds on his interests out of those things.

Miles is now 7, just turned in December. I have to say I am glad 6 is over, from what I hear it's a universally difficult age. He's wonderful, such a sweet, kind child, and he is SO much like his father. He is fascinated with electricity, taking things apart to see how they work, he loves physics and Rube Goldberg devices. He also loves geology.

They are incredible kids, and I love them so much. They amaze me, and inspire me. They are so loving, and caring, and just perfect.

Maddie is 5 months old now, and holy crap! She is just the best baby ever! I am in awe of her every day. She is just the absolute picture of happy baby-ness. She is bouncy, smiles at everyone. She is sitting assisted, still no teeth, has very grabby little hands, LOVES to chew on paper, drools everywhere. She is such a lovely little person.

Chris and I are celebrating 6 years of our relationship this year in February. I am still incredibly happy to have this wonderful man in my life. We have our issues, sometimes more than other times, but overall things are good, solid, and strong. He is the best partner. Just tonight we went out to dinner, and as always, he insisted on holding Maddie and letting me eat with my hands free, telling me he knows I am here all day with her and how he just wants to make sure I have the chance to enjoy my meal without juggling her.
He is also just madly in love with his little girl. He is an incredible father, he loves to show his daughter off, it's adorable. Most of the time when we're out, he just carries her around. I ask if we want to take the stroller. Usually it's a no, I'll just hold her from him.

He is also a wonderful step-parent to the boys, and he is there for them, to tuck them in at night, to put together their fiddly toys (Chaos Tower, criminy!), to play Legos with them for hours, to show them new things, to make them laugh, to take them out to play. They've had their moments in feeling out their relationships with each other this year, and I know step-parent relationships will have their own unique hurdles. I try to let him figure that out as much as possible, and I know they'll grow their relationship stronger and closer in the coming year.
When we got married 3.5 years ago, Chris made vows to the boys as well, and he took those just as seriously as his vows to me. I love him all the more for it.

I was pregnant for over half of the year, and pretty much miserable. I had never imagined such a taxing pregnancy! I am glad I won't ever have to do that again. The end result was worth it a million times over, of course, but yeah, DONE with that noise.
I am now out of shape, by far the biggest I've ever been, and feeling crappy about it. I am having a hard time getting motivated, but I am getting there.

I am home with Maddie for the time being, and I am enjoying it. I am looking forward to getting some things figured out with regards to my future at this point, some plans in place for when the time comes.
I have been trying to teach Maddie how to drink out of a bottle or sippy cup and so far that has been full of fail. She will chew on them, and finds them novel, but honestly has not a clue what to actually DO with them... I'll keep trying, and we'll hopefully get it sooner rather than later. I would like to be able to leave her so Chris and I can have a date, and so that I will have a little more in the way of options for my time.

Ok, enough with the hurf durfing, and on to some pictures!
(ARGH! CLICK ON THEM TO SEE THE WHOLE PICTURE!!!!! They got cut off! Too hard to go back, would have to redo the whole thing and I don't wanna!)

Yikes

2008-10-28T01:50:00.000-07:00

It's been a while.

Just a quick update, since it's ass crack of dawn:30

Maddie is now 3 months old and just the most amazing thing. I am so in love with my smiley, wonderful, happy baby.

Miles is taking ice skating lessons. His favorite color is pink, so he has some spiffy pink ice skates. He's going to be 7 in December. He's in LOVE with electronics and figuring out how things work. He adores the game Spore & the game Crazy Machines, where you put together Rube Goldberg type machines.

Max is still 9, and just got his white stripe on his green belt in TaeKwonDo, which he is really proud of. He's also currently obsessed with Pokemon. His Pokemon obsession comes and goes, but it's been on for the last few months. I don't know that he is currently capable of having an entire conversation without getting distracted and bringing pokemon into it.

Both of the boys voted in the Kids Vote thing on Nick. Obama, of course. They also dig talking politics. They are both in chess club at the library. They both love being homeschooled. Their eyeballs obviously have extra sparkles.

Maddie is smiling, drooling, loves to be held so that she can stand, learning what hands are for, contemplating her legs, considering her body's ability to roll over.

I am happy, no PPD, which is good.
I think my meds could be working better, though, cause I am having some issues with mood swings and general bitchiness. I am also over the top with anxiety lately, but I think that's just kind of in the air. The election, the economy, etc.

I cannot wait until the election is over.

My husband is, as always, awesome. I love him with all of my heart and I am so happy to be married to him. He is also an amazing daddy, parent to the boys, and just an all around great guy. Not to mention Teh Sexxy.

My BFF had a hysterectomy today, her husband called to tell me she was out of surgery and doing well. So Yay! I will go see her next weekend, once she's out of the hospital and chillaxin' at the 'rents house.

Halloween is Friday! w00t! It's my favorite holiday! Some friends are having their 10th wedding anniversary party, so we are going to go to their place, the kids will do TorTing, and much fun will be had by all. Can't figure out a costume for me or Chris but whatever, I'm sure I'll come up with something. Maybe.

Anyway, it is 4 in the morning, and I have no business being awake.
This is the most boring post ever, but I am too tired to try to be entertaining.

I've been neglecting you

2008-09-19T00:06:00.000-07:00

My poor blog, it's been woefully neglected of late.

I am going to do a fun food related dohicky for my own enjoyment! Comment if you put it in your blog and let me know so I can be sure to read your responses.

Copy this list into your blog, including these instructions.
Bold all items you've eaten.
Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.

1.Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare Well, Kitfo, but that counts, right?
5. Crocodile We’ll say yes, but actually only alligator, but close enough

6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. Peanut butter and jelly sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn or head cheese
26. ~~Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper~~
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a big fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. ~~Whole insects~~
43. Phaal

44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. ~~Fugu~~
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV, I hate beer but I have tried several w/ high ABV’s
59. Poutine Oh, but how I want to
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. ~~Sweetbreads~~ No way could I do it. Nope. Never.
63. Kaolin Like Kaopectade? How is this mineral a food? I think I’ve taken it before, though, so technically yes, I have ingested it.
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. ~~Horse~~ I’ve heard it’s not good & I just wouldn’t be able to bring myself to eat it
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa Once, on accident. Anything rose flavored is GROSS
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

An Update!

2008-08-18T22:46:00.001-07:00

Wow, I haven't updated in a while!

I have just been enjoying my new baby girl immensely. She is such a sweet little thing, and each day Chris and I are in awe of this beautiful little creature.

The boys both admit she's pretty cool, too :)

My Baby Girl

2008-07-28T10:51:00.000-07:00

I am so in love with this little girl, it's unreal.

I'll make a real post sometime soon, but I just had to say how in love I am. :D

Madeleine Anaise

2008-07-21T16:20:00.000-07:00

I'm just cutting and pasting the post I made on the Mothering boards:

Pictures!

Early Saturday morning, July 19th, 8 days before my edd, around 4am, when I was finally going into bed for the night, I went to pee first and because of all the talk of obsessive toilet paper checking, checked my paper, which I had just started doing, and it looked pink tinged. So I wiped again to make sure and yup, it was a bit of light pink.

I told dh as we crawled into bed.
I fell asleep fairly easily but didn't sleep well. I think I was a little excited. I woke up a few times through the night, but was able to go right back to sleep, though not deeply.

At just before 10 I woke up and it felt a little weird down there, and I was wondering if I had mucus plug trying to come out or what. After a few minutes of trying to decide if I wanted to get up to go pee and check there was a little pop and warm fluid. Not a whole lot, but enough that I was pretty sure my water broke (this is the first time it's broken before way late into labor).
I told dh and we got up to put in a load of baby clothes and the new sheets in the laundry. (That day was supposed to be laundry day so it hadn't been done yet!) I had a few mild contractions going to the laundry room and knew that this would be picking up pretty quickly.

When we got back to the apt I lost my plug in a big way. I called my best friend because I suddenly thought I might like to have her there cause we had a bit of stuff to get done. I also called one of my closest friends who lives in my apts who is a professional photographer, and she wanted to at least get some early labor shots if I felt like letting her. So she came over at about 10:45 and my contractions were picking up. My best friend got here around 11:15 and things were already starting to get very intense. My friend A needed to make a battery run, so she left to do that, and my best friend K came into the room with me while Chris went to switch over laundry. She had filled up my birth ball for me, but I wanted to lay down cause I was starting to feel nauseated.

When Chris came back I was starting to feel kind of panicky, cause things were getting very hard very fast and I just didn't feel like she was positioned well. I could tell she had gone completely head down, but wasn't moving down in a good way. I wasn't worried about her, I was worried about me, to be honest.

Contractions were still spaced a ways apart, so I knew it wasn't transition yet, so I knew when I was SURE I wanted to go to the hospital it wasn't just me freaking out, it was more than that.

At this point they were coming about 3-4 minutes apart and lasting a minute or so, and I couldn't keep my focus through them at all. That wasn't a good feeling, and I told Chris to grab a few things (my robe, and the camera, I think) and shove them in a bag and that I wanted to go NOW.

The hospital we decided to go to is only about 4? miles away, and I had about 4 contractions on the way there. That was BAD. I was leaning over into the bad seat just dry heaving and screaming, and COULD NOT GET IT TOGETHER. I think that was the worst part. I was able to keep it together in my previous births. I may have been quite vocal but I KNOW screaming tightens, etc. But I could not manage.

We got to the hospital, and I had a few contractions getting into the room and changed. At this point I think it was about 12:30. When whoever it was checked me I was only at 6cm. It wasn't a surprise at all, I knew I wouldn't be farther than that. I had a really hard time getting through things for the next while, and I had just a bit of a lip and was fully dilated close to 2. At this point I was nominally better at vocalizing in good ways except during peaks, but it was still impossible to stay focused through. I was a mess.

She was posterior, kinda badly positioned, but started at some point to have a major issue with decels, and I was fully dilated. They wanted me to push since she WAS starting to have those decels and my water was broken, and so I did, but not well at all. That was really bad. Her heart rate evened out, though, and I pushed for close to half an hour, and she kept going right back up each time. And I could FEEL her head hitting my pubic bones. It just didn't feel right. I told them this and told them I HAD to stop pushing, cause also at that point I literally thought my back and tailbone were on the verge of breaking. So the ob said ok, we'll wait, cause I obviously was NOT going to keep pushing

I told them I really wanted an epidural (again, actually), (I felt ok with this since I would NOT have pit and I was already fully dilated). The nurse I had who was wonderful, got the anesthesiologist in there for me, and somehow I managed to love through getting the epidural put in without moving during a contraction. He didn't hook me up to the drip since they figured I would have the baby any time. One contraction, same awful. Next one, ok. The next? I was just fine. I could still feel them and was completely aware of what my body was doing, but there was no pain. It was amazing. I NEVER thought I would be in a hospital again, with an epidural! and happy about it, but I was. Oh boy, I was. I guess circumstances make all the difference. A posterior baby stuck on pelvic bones with broken water? Yeah... That made the difference to me!

The ob (some random guy I'd never seen before, but he was ok. The obs are really quite superfluous really, ime, as long as they're not jerks) saw that now that I was comfortable and the baby was just fine we could take however long we needed and try to let the baby turn. So I would lay on my right side, then my left, for about half an hour each, then my nurse would ask me to turn again. Which was amusing seeing as how I had an epidural and had a heck of a time maneuvering my legs!! But I managed.

The epidural was done perfectly, too. I really could feel what my body was doing every moment, I could tell when she had finally turned, and just felt her descend really well, in the perfect position this time. They were really hands off, and trusted me to just tell them what I was feeling. My nurse just told me they would check again when the pressure starting feeling almost constant. The epidural was starting to wear off so she called the guy back to just put me on the drip. He was surprised to see me again
During this time dh & I sat listening to a podcast sharing my ipod headphones just holding hands and waiting to meet our new baby girl. That is a wonderful memory. I let my bff come in for a bit, too, then she ran to get her and my dh some food.

And the pressure just got stronger, and my body was pushing. I was still able to breathe through it, though for a little bit longer, and when I was just pushing and I felt like I could poop out the baby any time, I told her I thought the doctor should probably come and check me, she was thinking the same thing.

So he came back in and asked me just to give a little push, and yup, sure enough he told me she had hair and to try to breathe through so as not to push so hard for just a minute so he could change the bed bottom

I didn't even care about being in the stupid laying down position then, she was so far down and perfectly ready to come out it didn't make a bit of difference. I pushed once, knew her head was starting to crown, pushed again, out came her head, then they reminded me to go slow and let her come out , which I was able to do, and there she was! 3 pushes! The cord was wrapped around her neck, (explains a lot of things) and so they cut it soon, which I was totally ok with at that point. Then they handed me my baby girl. (No tearing, barely any swelling, a little bit of a skid mark, but it's nothing really. I can't believe how fine I feel!)

She was so covered in vernix, it was amazing! And she was so small! She was very mucusy, so I actually wanted her suctioned well. She came out pretty fast overall once she actually got down there, so I don't think it all got squeezed out.
(She also choked a few times and puked the first night, too. I had a bulb syringe and actually used it a few times.)

She was born at 5:45pm, 7-19-08. 7lb1oz. 19.5" long. So little!

Wow, I just realized how long this is getting.

Anyway, things went exceptionally well. I had planned a UC, and never thought I would go to a hospital ever again. And while under most any other circumstance I wouldn't have I am very very happy with my decision to go. I listened to myself and made the informed choice when the time came.
I was there on my terms, and I was also there knowing that making the decision to go would make it necessary for me to pick my battles. I think that made all of the difference.

I was open and vocal on my feelings, had a fantastic nurse, even if we didn't agree about hospital/homebirth on some issues, we had a great dialogue and I just enjoyed talking to her.

I was pleased that I didn't have to fight with them not to do anything I wouldn't have wanted to do. They were all overall great.

And I am still fully supportive of UC. homebirth, natural birth, all of it in a big bad way, but I am more appreciative of other circumstances in which a well informed decision can make me in wonder and awe of the magic of a well done epidural.

I feel wonderful, the baby is a marathon nurser and I certainly hope my milk comes in sooner rather than later because she's nursing for HOURS and my nipples are sore I got a fantastic night's sleep last night, though. I am so glad to have been able to go straight into nursing while laying down and sleeping!

Anyway, it wasn't the way I planned to birth, but I am SO HAPPY with the way it went.

July 16, 1999

2008-07-15T22:32:00.000-07:00

9 years ago today, I became a mother for the first time.

Happy birthday to my beautiful, brilliant, amazing Maxwell.

Due in 17 Days.

2008-07-10T00:09:00.001-07:00

Holy Crap.

That is all.

Lazy Summer Days

2008-07-07T14:08:00.000-07:00

The boys have been remarkably good about the fact that we're not doing much of anything every day. We're going to go down to the pool later, but that's about it.

I made a chiro appointment for Thursday. Here's hoping this baby girl will turn and all will be well. Keep those turn baby turn thoughts coming my way. I know she can turn as late as me going into labor and all, so I can wait till then. But I also have to think of the very real possibility that she may not turn. Which I will just assume means that there is a very good reason (placenta issue, short cord, etc) and she knows just what she needs to be doing.
If that's the case then I will march myself into the hospital and get a necessary c-section with the best of them. I just really hope to avoid it.

Oh! Another thing I am excited about is the Essure procedure. I am going to start looking into OBs that do this procedure AS SOON AS this baby is out. We KNOW this is our last baby, and Essure seems almost magical for it's effectiveness and much lower side effects than a tubal or even a vasectomy.

I also made an appointment with WIC, which we should qualify for. I have NO issue with getting that type of assistance when it's needed. I don't understand the mentality of refusing assistance.
You know what? I have been working pretty steadily for the last 15 years of my life, paying into these government funds the entire time. That's why they're there, yk?

Anyway, WIC will help with some staples, and any help with the price of everything having gone up so much.

I'm also planning to give the coupon thing another go. I know I can do it, I'm just so darned disorganized sometimes and get overwhelmed. Which is funny, cause I'm awesome at helping other people organize their stuff. :p

I'm also going to start planning my DONA PP doula training for the fall. I'm looking forward to it.

3 weeks and a day to edd.

2008-07-04T00:19:00.000-07:00

It's completely nuts to think that tomorrow I will be term. I can have this baby at any moment, of course any time in the next 5 weeks or so.

This is exciting, starting to feel just a little nervous about going through labor again.

June 24, 2005

2008-06-24T01:00:00.000-07:00

3 years ago today I married the most wonderful person I could ever imagine spending my life with.

Happy Anniversary to my dear husband!

RIP George Carlin

2008-06-23T01:25:00.000-07:00

One of my favorites of his pieces:

Pro-Life is Anti-Woman. (By posting the title I'm giving you the content, don't watch if it's going to offend you)
"You know why? Cause chickens are decent people!"

Damn straight, George. I'm glad you had the BALLS to speak it like it is, and in such a way, too!

Wordle

2008-06-23T00:34:00.000-07:00

This is a Wordle that I did from the Father's Day post, I really like it.

Still Alive

2008-06-21T09:52:00.000-07:00

I realized I hadn't actually posted anything after my whiny post. Sorry! I meant to post something much more pleasant soon after.

The kids are playing with the Spore Creature Creator. They are having fun with it. I am looking forward to the game itself! It doesn't come out until September, though.

But it is on my Wishlist, so you know, just in case... Haha. Kidding. It's a low priority on my wishlist. ;)

We rented The Golden Compass, which I am undecided on whether to let the kids watch later this evening. I'm going to read a little more about the "fantasy violence" that caused the PG-13 rating.
I think that if Max wanted to read the His Dark Materials trilogy at this point I would encourage him, so it doesn't make any sense really to deny the movie, though I still need to find out a little more. Of course I would prefer he read the first book instead. Just cause the books are EXCELLENT, and I know that the movie will pale in comparison.

I've let the kids watch PG-13 stuff on occasion, because all "fantasy violence" and other themes are not created equally.

Take Stardust for example. It's got a PG-13 rating, but overall? I had no real issues with it, and let the kids watch it after I initially screened it. But Princess Mononoke will be another few years before I even let my oldest watch it. The themes in that movie are what are too intense for them, more than the violent scenes. I could block out the only really graphic part towards the beginning, but I still think there are a lot of things that would be disturbing to them at their age and maturity levels.

I hate that bird. SOOOOO much. My friend should be here later to take it away. Thank goodness. I'm done with it. (Scream, scream, scream, scream = my sudden and horrible background "music").

I hate to suck so much for my kids, but I really think it's time for me to take a nap for a while. Ugh. 5 hours of mediocre sleep doesn't work for me. I wish I could sleep like a normal person again.

Whining & Bitching

2008-06-18T19:52:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to stay positive, but right now I am going to just let it all out.

I am freaking miserable. I have been able to do nothing but sleep, lay down, try not to puke, try to keep from crying, etc, for days.
I haven't even managed to go visit my friend who had surgery. Hell, I haven't even spoken to her in days, other than a "yes, I'm alive" text.
I don't want to talk to anyone, I don't want to do anything or go anywhere.

I just want to stop feeling like utter crap all the livelong day.

I sleep so much. It's not even right. I am nauseated most of the time. Like now, and forever.

I want to stay in my hermit hole till this baby is here. I HAD to leave the house today (for literally the first time since what? Saturday?) for having dinner with the kids. I had to fight off tears all the way there and back. Nausea, so freaking hot. Tried to walk around Target for half an hour while waiting to pick them up, and spent the whole time worried about puking, sweating horribly, with extremely uncomfortable Braxton-Hicks contractions, trying not to cry.
People were looking at me funny.

And I just don't care. I resent anything that requires me to put on clothes or be in a non horizontal position for more than a few minutes. The couch is my best friend.

Grocery shopping on Saturday was the most horrible buying spree ever. It was all processed crap cause I cannot manage to cook real food now. Canned ravioli, canned soup, ramen, sandwich stuff, ice cream. I didn't even buy fresh produce except for a couple of mangoes and some peaches.

I also hate whining all the damn time. That's all I feel like I do.
Chris is SO awesome, he is the most supportive, attentive, and patient person, and I am so very grateful for him. He has made this all bearable for me. But I feel so bad for him having to listen to me. Even turning over or sitting up means horrible groans and ouches from me. I feel like such a wimp.

I mean, I know I am growing a whole human being in there, but still, seriously. People do this all the flipping time.

Sigh.... My life online is pain free, which is why I have chosen to primarily only communicate through the internet recently. I can focus on other things, rather than my misery.

Anyway, that is all. I felt like getting it out there. Maybe I'll feel better soon. I doubt it, though.

Baby Toys

2008-06-18T02:03:00.000-07:00

There are tons of icky plastic toys out there, but I don't like that sort of thing for babies. They chew on them like you wouldn't believe and I don't think phthalates and such are great for chewing. And how many toys do babies actually need? Not many! Just a few interesting things to look at and drool on. They are as happy with a washrag with frozen water on a corner to chew on as anything else when they are teething.

And so, in that vein, I'm going to post what I think are some of the best baby toys out there!

This is the Bonita by Haba. It's colorful and full of chewy fun! And it's awfully girly and cute, which totally gets me every time.

This is probably my favorite, cause it's a whole set for a really great price. Sassy has a really great line of wooden infant toys that I really like, and they are all very reasonably priced. I plan to get a few of these if nothing else.

I love this thing, too! It's another one by the German company Haba. Look at its bright simplicity, and how wonderful must that be to chew on while teething for a baby?

To be honest, I love nearly all of the toys put out by Haba, though they are kind of expensive.

Oh, and my love for Vulli natural rubber toys from France is pretty deep, too. I NEEEED this little thing:

This is one of the Chan Pie Gnon teethers from Vulli. Hehe! Chan Pie Gnon! Get it? This is Pink Pie. And I would really like one of these for Madeleine.
Sophie the Giraffe is Vulli's most famous toy apparently, but screw the giraffe, I want this one!

As I said before, babies don't need many toys. And I would rather put more money into something made with certified sustainable products, safe paints, are positively lead free and plastic free, so my own baby can chew and drool to her heart's delight and I can keep my peice of mind.

This made me cry :)

2008-06-16T20:14:00.000-07:00

In a very happy way.
These women have been in love with each other for 55 years. They are now 87 and 84, and they were just married legally in the state of California.
This is simply the sweetest picture.

And now, as fair warning, I am going to rant, and probably piss you off if you're religious, so stop now, or don't say I didn't warn you.

How can any government tell someone who they are allowed to be with and who they can't? Based on religious ideals?

The government that thinks it can do that is a government that has far too much control over my life. And our government does. I applaud any state for standing up and doing the right thing.

And how DARE those people go out there with their self righteousness and their bullshit signs and tell someone that it is "morally" wrong to have the same legal status for their relationship. Screw you. I don't have "morals", but I do have ethics, I didn't have morals shoved down my throat to make me act a certain way.

I do the right thing because I am a good person, not for the sake of your ridiculous imaginary friend, thank you very much, you self righteous twats.

To look at these women and to think that there is something wrong with their love for one another and their right to their commitment getting the same legal status as hetero couples is something that is unethical.

Where does the time go?

2008-06-16T13:08:00.001-07:00

34 weeks & 2 days. Only 40 days to go, my counter says. Wow. All of a sudden this last bit is flying by!

Things to do:

Clean the house - It's a never-ending thing! It's never perfect, which is what I want. And I achieved perfect while nesting with #2, seriously. I went all Fly Lady on that shit and I shined my sink 3x's a day the last week or so cause there wasn't anything else left I could possibly do. I had even painted the rooms in the house! Hurting and miserable this time doesn't allow for that.
Make food for the freezer - lasagna, whatever else? Casseroles of various types. I REALLY WISH we could afford a small chest freezer. ARGH!
Laundry- been pretty good about keeping up, but never have enough quarters on hand! Have many loads to do right now, all sorted already, but no quarters. Frustrating!
The Back Bathroom of DOOM - We've pretty much abandoned it to the cats. We haven't even used the shower in there for months, we use the front bathroom. The litter box is HUGE, and takes up so much space. I hate walking around it to the bathtub/toilet part of the bathroom, so only the front part gets used at all. I will definitely want the shower and all available for labor and afterwards. Don't know where else we could put the litter box, though, and with only one box for 2 cats we can't really go smaller. Here is the monstrosity we have for them.
Clean the hall closets? Haha. The front one is FILLED with crap that I want to get rid of but have not had the energy to deal with posting on Craigslist to sell or Freecycle to just make it go. So back into the closet it went. The front closet is quite bothersome. Then I opened the back hall closet and realized it's in about the same shape. Argh!
Our closet - It' s becoming as filled with crap as before. Argh! Again!
The kids' room - Oy. That's a project for them this weekend. They do ok cleaning it and it's really not that bad. I wish the rest of the house were as easy to clean. Everything has a place in their room. Makes me jealous. That's my goal with the rest of the house.
Living room - bookshelves, books, there is still the giant pile of books next to the couch that needs to GO, etc.

Ok, I realize I should be cleaning instead of blogging, ha!

Hatred of the clutter! It doesn't matter if I can't see it, it's still there and I know it. Just as bothersome.

I will be doing some cleaning shortly, then try to go swim for a bit.

Things left to obtain:

Birthing Ball - Need this! My bestest buddy during labor.
Fish Scale - Wish I knew someone who fished often and had one I could just borrow

I know there's more, but mostly I have everything or it's being shipped to me today.

An Early Father's Day Post

2008-06-13T21:26:00.000-07:00

I am married to the most wonderful person, and I am so happy to be having a baby with him. Our 3 year wedding anniversary is coming up and we've been together for well over 5 years now. I can't believe how happy I still am every day.

He's been a fantastic, wonderful parent to my kids for the last several years, so already a reason to celebrate him as a father, but this year is special and different, since we are only a short way away from the birth of our first child together. I am so happy that he will get to experience the birth of his daughter, and feel what it's like to have all of those firsts in her life that he didn't get to see in my boys' lives.

I didn't want any more children for a long time, something he knew came with the territory of our relationship and marriage. When I worked through all of my feelings on it and realized I did want another child, and that I did want another child with him, he was more than happy about it. A little freaked when within a month later we had an oops that was handed to him on a peed on stick, but still happy even through his stark terror.

He has been a wonderful, loving, caring partner to me.

We have had our moments, of course, and no relationship is perfect all of the time, but I can say that I know that we can work through anything. I want to be with him to grow old together, I am so glad he is my husband.

And I am so happy to be able to tell him not just Happy Father's Day, but to be able to tell him that in a different way this year, as we prepare ourselves and our family for a new baby, one that we have created together.

Fantastic! An Update.

2008-06-11T14:08:00.000-07:00

So, my friend had her surgery today. Her boyfriend just called to update me. All went well. Doctor is sure it's not cancer of any sort, just endometriosis-y stuff.

She's awake from anesthesia, though probably wishing she weren't per her boyfriend, very groggy still.

So, glad all is well. She should be out of the hospital Friday barring anything unforeseen, and will be staying at her parents' till she's more mobile. (Her only bathroom at her own house is upstairs, so she needs to be able to get up and down stairs before going home!) She was a little apprehensive about staying at her mom's cause her mom is VERY excited to be able to take care of her after surgery, heh. She and her mom are super close and her mom is great, but she's worried that it will be too much attention after a couple of days :)

But anyway, all is well, so that's great!

Oh, thank heavens, they got there just in time.

2008-06-10T04:35:00.000-07:00

Woman gives birth in SUV story

Whatever would have happened to that mother and child if the paramedics would not have arrived?! I hate news stories like this. This particular blog is also not very fond of them, which is why I read it. They cover everything that is considered an "emergency" childbirth.

On to my rant.

I don't understand why the paramedics would need to "assist".
If the baby was half way out don't you think the mother could have managed on her own at that point? What, exactly, did the paramedics do when got there to "assist"? Was the mother suddenly unable to push on her own? Did they have to come in to hover around cause that's the only way anyone ever seems to give birth on television or in a standard hospital birth, with a million people standing around telling her to stop trusting her own body and listen to them? It's like asking the audience at the Price is Right. They'll confuse you and make you doubt yourself.

I mean, I really hope that the paramedics would know enough and respect childbirth enough to stand back, tell her she is doing fine, and encourage her to keep doing such a great job. Perhaps help catch the baby if she didn't have someone there with her to do that.
Fortunately I think paramedics often have a better sense of that than your standard doctor or nurse in a hospital setting.

I have read the tales of several planned homebirth or hospital births turnedunassisted birth at home in which they offered to help if they could, then left the family well at home if that was what the family wished. No one panicked or got transferred unless they wanted to be.

Anyway, the way it's framed in new stories annoys me. That is all.

It's 6:39 and I still have not come close to sleep yet.

The end.

Hoo boy!

2008-06-10T03:53:00.000-07:00

I've been on my bb, and someone in the food forum posted a thread called
"Boning Fresh Salmon"
Every time I see it I start giggling.

My friend sent out a Twitter last week with a company wide email he got. Someone had apparently "dislocated" their cell phone.

Oh, I find it all amusing! Of course, it is 6 am, and there's been no sleep yet for me. Of course I find it all amusing!

2008-06-03T23:27:00.000-07:00

I have a lot of pictures I need to upload, and that I want to post, like me all dressed up in my vinyl maternity pants for a party I went to Saturday. Heh.
And I cut my hair short again. I prefer it short, I really do. It's so much easier to deal with.

And right now I am so HAPPY! http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91126460

YAY YAY YAY YAY! Obama!

Argh.

2008-06-03T11:15:00.000-07:00

So, I'm waiting on my best friend to pick me up. We're going to hang out, as we usually do at least once a week.

She's been having some major scary medical stuff, and is now scheduled for surgery June 11th. I am SO glad they moved it up.
She is having an oophorectomy, where they take out an ovary (they are planning on just removing the right one right now). She has a huge scary cyst on her right, HUGE, SCARY. And a smaller one on her left. It's been a matter of getting the surgery scheduled without insurance, etc, for her, with her doctors telling her that it's very urgent that she has this surgery done as soon as possible because the cyst could burst and kill her... Thanks for being so helpful! But they won't help unless you give them craploads of money! Argh. Stupid insurance crap in this country really upsets me.

Anyway, she went to another doc last week, and they did bloodwork to look for elevated CA 125, and that came back positive, which she just found out yesterday. What this actually means, she doesn't know, but at least they moved the surgery up. It's not necessarily a sign for ovarian cancer, it could mean a number of things including endometriosis, etc, but the not knowing is still scary in the meantime.

Updated Blog Links

2008-05-22T00:31:00.000-07:00

I finally decided to take some time in updating my blogroll and divided them up into categories. Still have quite a bit to do on it, but a good part is done.

I read a LOT of blogs.

Birth Preparation

2008-05-21T20:07:00.001-07:00

I know there aren't a whole lot of things I *need* for the birth, I mean, we'd manage with a towel and our teeth for gnawing through the cord if it came down to it.

But I do plan to get a few things together before hand. The main things I really want to have on hand are the herbs and tinctures. I really really need to start the EPO and RRL and all of those things. I can't believe I have neglected even buying RRL tea. Going to get some before the weekend and take it with me.
I really want the herbs and such for bleeding. Just in case I hemmorhage again. How awful would that be to have my perfect birth, then have to go to the ER because of bleeding. That would piss me off a whole lot.

I think I decided to once again not to bother with a tub. My last few births I would have not used a tub. I had one to use the last time, and it never got set up, and the entire thought of it sounded hideous to me. I don't think it will be different. If it is, oh well.

Standing in the shower for a bit with water on my lower back helped last time, till they made me get out since I kept falling asleep between contractions. They didn't want me to fall. I hated them so much for making me get out. I understand their concern, but this time? Guess what? No one there to tell me what to do! I'll stand there all I want if I am so inclined! Ha!

I want a cheap shower curtain for under old sheets on the bed, some chux pads so I don't have to do towels (special matching happy birthday to me towels, remember?), an aspirator, and a digital fish scale and sling for it. Everything else? Meh, I think I will survive with or without it. There are probably a few other things that I am forgetting, but that's the gist of it.

This evening the kids had some questions about meconium and what happens if the baby does poop before birth, can that happen, etc? Max asked if I was having an unassisted birth. I told him I was in the sense that I will know how to have this baby, my body knows and the baby knows, but that I would have assistance from the people who will be there and love me and support me. I told him about how the Emergency Childbirth book says that any reasonably intelligent 8 year old could assist in the birth of a baby. Oh goodness. The boys' eyes lit up! They are now wanting to cut the cord at the least, but are ready to help out with the birth all by themselves :) I love those kids SO MUCH. It's indescribable. I am so happy they are getting excited about the birth and new sister. It's taken a while, but they are both seeming excited about it now.

Gosh, it doesn't look like it, but I did manage a little cleaning this morning. Nesting! Where are you?!? Where is my energy? Where did it go?

Neat Internet & Blog Finds

2008-05-21T12:36:00.000-07:00

Here are just a few things that have caught my eye recently. I love the internet, I really do.

Things that make me go "squee!":

I really really want a Wonderwash and Spin Dryer. They make so much sense!
I would LOVE to have both of these items. I would find it MUCH easier to ease up on my paper towel usage and go almost exclusively to towels and rags. Maybe I can get some cloth diapers and just add to my collection as it goes. I can have a goal of exclusive cloth by 6 months IF I can get these! They would for both come out to under $200 total, even with shipping, I'm sure.
I found these via a post on one of my favorite blogs, Treehugging Family. Peggy and Jennifer are always posting great ideas and discussions and cool things.

I am finally going to bust out the ice cream maker next week for the weekend. And the first thing I am making is this divine strawberry frozen yogurt from Simply Recipes. I can't wait to try it! And in the 2nd bowl I'm going to make coconut milk ice cream. Mmm....

I adore these robot animals by Ann P. Smith, via Craftzine.com. They are SO NEAT.

I want a house like this: Beauvoir Residence by Bruce Bolander Architect, via materialicious. I would love to do something like this using shipping containers.
I also really love strawbale and cob houses, too. I am not sure if I could do that type of material here in the swamp, though.
Something else I need to look into is how to work some sort of cooling system into a green home. Passive just doesn't seem like it would work here. It doesn't cool down at night, and the humidity stays in the high 90%s from this point of the year through September, at least. Which is another reason I am not sure if strawbale or cob could work here. Mold is a big concern.
And whichever house I end up building, I have wanted concrete counters and floors for forever! And look at these floors! They are magnificent!
If I could do a strawbale, I adore this house: Drew Residence, One World Design Architecture, via RiverWired. The RiverWired article is also from the same Jennifer at TreeHuggingFamily. She's a pro blogger and writes for several of my favorite blogs.

I really really want a set of these to frame for the baby's room: Nerdy Baby ABC Flashcards!!!

The internet abounds with cool stuff!

2008-05-20T22:58:00.000-07:00

I've been sucking at posting, so here's a quick one.

I am now over 30 weeks, which is just crazy. I am excited, though.

I have been packing for this weekend, and determined to have a great time and not be miserably hot the whole time. We'll see how that goes. I can bitch about the heat the rest of the time, but if I know what I'm getting into and doing it to myself, then I have no room to bitch.

Project Spring Cleaning seems to be a wash. It is chaotic with no way out that I can see.

My cereal obsession has evolved, like a pokemon. It's gone from Lucky Charms to Cocoa Pebbles. Can't imagine what the 3rd evolution will be.

I can't stop yawning. It's annoying. I should probably go to bed soon. But I won't, I know me. More likely I will fall asleep for a while on the couch.

The End. More actual content coming soon.

Update of Random

2008-05-13T13:48:00.000-07:00

I haven't been posting regularly for a few reasons, #1 is I have been on the mothering boards a lot lately, and then trying to catch up with my rss feeds. (I sub to 126 blogs currently and some of the blogs, like BoingBoing, Consumerist and TreeHugger are pretty prolific in their posts).

Another reason is it's frustrating to post so often to next to no one.

And there's just so much I'd like to post, but I'm lazy sometimes.

So, where to start? The baby shifted so the SPD pain is significantly better the last few days, even though my back and stomach muscles hurt.

We spent the weekend being lazy and at the pool, which was very nice. But the house, oh I can't even deal with it. I plan to clean some in a little bit cause I feel a bit better today than I have been.

I ate too many carbs over the weekend and woke up feeling awful yesterday :( Concentrating on upping my protein intake and no more processed carbs like that. UGH.

I have wanted to post about thrift stores finds, but haven't yet. I also took some new pics yesterday of my pregnant self and want to put those up soon, but haven't cause both sets of batteries need to be recharged.

I don't want to talk about Mother's Day, other than to say I totally give up. It's been nothing but utter disappointment to me since my first Mother's Day while pregnant 9 years ago. I am hurt, depressed, angry, all of those things. I'm going to give up on this. My kids were awesome, at least. Made me GREAT cards and of course make me feel so loved every single day. SO loved.

We implemented pizza night on Friday and making a note here, Huge Success. I'll post specifics later on. I'll probably just copy and paste a post I made on Mothering earlier.

Been watching Season 2 of Dexter. LOVE it, just as good if not better than the first season. On the edge of my seat with it right now. Nail Biting nerves. Is it wrong to be rooting for the sociopathic serial killer?

I may get to work part time again doing the same thing that I was soon. That would ROCK hardcore! Money is tight and stressful right now, and it sucks.

What, what? In the butt. I said, What , what? In the butt!

Have found some cool things at thrift stores. That's why we purged our books, you know. To buy more. Ha. I've had to have bought at least a dozen since we purged. But I love books, reading, as do Chris and Max, and Miles is getting there with his reading, too.

Both kids are homeschooling and thrilled about it, as am I. VERY happy with it. Wish I had better communication with the ex and his spouse, but I am happy with the set up. They are not doing the homeschooling personally, they have someone hired full time with all 4 of the younger kids in their household. Each kid got to make their own decision on whether they wanted to. Max was the longest holdout and he's just been doing this for about 2 weeks.
I've wanted hsing for them from day 1. I am a big believer that homeschooling with a committed family is by far the best option for kids. However you do it, unschooling (my preference), curriculum based (VERY strongly pro-secular, though), co-op schooling with other like minded families. Homeschooling comes in all shapes and flavors, and peoples silly questions about it bother me. Had to field the mil on Mother's Day about socialization, etc. Argh.
I wish people who don't really want to be educated about a subject feels it's ok to give me the 3rd degree with no intention of really listening. There's a ton of different subjects this can apply to in my experience.

I really want to go see Iron Man this week when the check gets here.

I am going to the Kerrville Folk Festival with a friend this year. Yay! Primitive camping at 7 months! I just know what life will be like for a while after the baby, and getting to laze around, sleep during the hot day, go down to the river to swim and cool off, then stay up late around the fires listening to music and chilling out? I can do that for 3 days! Unfortunately I don't think Chris can come :(

We really need to plan a weekend thing for just us before the baby gets here. I was hoping hoping hoping to be able to afford to go to New Orleans for a long weekend and stay at the B&B where we spent our honeymoon, but financially that just won't happen. Sigh... Maybe just a trip to Austin to hang with friends, that would be nice, too.

We should plan that now. Maybe a midweek trip would be best. Who knows, I need to look at a calendar.

I also need to finish my list for the (bwahahahahaha!!!! I just realized, since i didn't want to call it a shower I was about to type "baby bbq"! Hahahaha!) Baby shower... (cause I guess there's not a better term offhand!) and get it to my best friend so she can get to work on invites. She's been on me, and I've worked on it, just need to finish it.

And really at this point I'm really hoping that no one else gets onesies! We have SO MANY :) I love thrift stores.
I am going ask people for things like frozen meals, dinner, laundry, dishes, those types of gifts :) Those are the best type! I do still have a registry for those who really want it, and there's some stuff I on there I wouldn't mind receiving at all but we can live without them. Well, except for diapers and more bottles! I'm so glad I was able to get the basics already, though.

What else? I'm sure there's more but this is turning into a long random post.

Ha! I Knew It!

2008-05-08T00:51:00.000-07:00

Ok, I am making this post mainly to be able to share it in Google Reader with all of you fine folks.
Is anyone surprised by this?

Why Conservatives are Happier than Liberals

2008-05-07T10:57:00.000-07:00

Wow. I'm already 28 weeks and 4 days along. This has gone by so quickly!

There's been a bit of a change regarding where we plan to have the baby, and I am very happy with this decision.

I never thought I would feel like I could be one of those women who trusted themselves enough to have an unassisted childbirth at home, but I realized that I AM just that capable and awesome, and I really NEVER EVER EVER want to go back to a hospital unnecessarily. THAT is what is dangerous to both me and the baby. Not birthing at home in a safe place with me and my husband who absolutely believe in my body's ability to birth a baby.

So, we are planning a medically unassisted homebirth for the birth of our daughter in July.

I feel so much relief having made this decision. I have no more anxiety about birthing like I did with the thought of "having" to go to a hospital. I just couldn't bring myself to do that. AND the more it goes, the more I really like the idea of not even having a midwife there.

I will be the one trusting myself and my body completely to have this baby. I will have my dh there, and perhaps another person or two as "an extra set of hands", but that's all we need.

I am not concerned about hemmoraging either. I feel fully confident that if that happens we will be able to handle it with no issues. Education is key, and I will be fully prepared for that circumstance, or any other that could come up.

I really like the Emergency Childbirth: A Manual that a lot of people recommend keeping on hand and reading through. In it the author says that any reasonably intelligent 8 year old can assist in the birth of a baby. Well, heck, if Chris isn't around, then Max can help ;) He'll have even just turned 9!

I am excited about the birth now, not dreading it. And that will let me have a peaceful wonderful experience. I'm ready to meet my new baby now!

Coffee!!

2008-05-05T10:13:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I finally opened the bag of coffee we got at Costco and I think it deserves it's very own post. It is magnificent!

I have been using previously ground beans for a while, and no matter what type I have used, the best of them has been meh. But I figured I could use my Vita-Mix to grind the beans until I get a good grinder so we bought whole bean coffee.

Wow, it is so good! This is my favorite coffee hands down. And for $13 for a 2.2lb bag? Heck yeah!

A Quick Update

2008-05-05T01:01:00.001-07:00

I haven't updated in several days, maybe even nearly a week. I figure I'll catch up this week. I was certainly happy to read about Blogger's new feature of being able to auto post by setting up times.
I felt like I was a little too post happy last week and I think this will let me do more posting like I would like without bombarding anyone.

It's late and we just finished watching another episode of Dexter. I love that show. We're 3 episodes into the 2nd season now and it's still fantastic.

We went to Galveston yesterday for a birthday party and that was great, I will post pictures soon. Here's a sneak peak:

They were fine in the water (I got in a bit, too and it was nice and warm) but out of the water in the wind and those boys were cold and wet.
It was in the mid 80s here yesterday, but that's almost cold for a TX beach. I can never figure out people from other areas of the country that think 75 is balmy and go swimming in a pool, that's insane to me! I think my kids are the same way. :)

It's been a good weekend, and I have made my to do list for the week (and really, there's not a whole lot on there I can come up with), and am looking forward to getting the rest of the house in order. It's almost there!

Grrrrr....

2008-04-28T12:06:00.001-07:00

Due to jackassery in my apartment complex, management is being forced to have the recycling container removed on May 1st.
They made a flier at the beginning of this month stating that if people could not keep food and other inappropriate garbage out of the container that they would have to have it removed, because the service we had was unable to pick it up like that.

Guess what? Apparently there are one too many dipshits that cannot use the handy dandy recycling container in the proper way, so out it has to go. ARGH!

It occurs to me...

2008-04-28T02:40:00.000-07:00

That I should post something new exciting and different soon. Like something fluffy but that does not involve my laundry or my dwarf hamster. Hmmm.

2008-04-27T22:59:00.001-07:00

On the most recent This American Life, which is playing in the background right now they just used a snippet of one of my favorite pieces of music in there.
Comptine D'un Autre Été: L'après-midi, my absolute favorite piano piece ever. It was composed by Yann Tiersen and was used in the movie Amélie.
Love that song. LOVE. I love the entire music track to Amélie, but that is my favorite.

Chicken with Mushroom Cream Sauce

2008-04-27T21:32:00.001-07:00

I mentioned yesterday that I would be trying this out for dinner. Wow, it is so good.
I'm reposting this from Simply Recipes with additional notes of how I did it. Italics are mine.

Ingredients

1 5-pound roasting chicken, cut into serving pieces (I used 5 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves)
Flour, salt and pepper
1 cup grapeseed oil, or canola oil (I used canola, and only about 1/2 cup since I didn't have as much chicken)
Butter
1/4 cup rich chicken broth
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced (I used baby portabellas, NOM!)
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup heavy cream
Salt and pepper

Method

1 Put a cup of flour, a teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of pepper in a brown paper bag. Piece by piece, put a piece of chicken in the bag and shake to coat the chicken with flour mixture.

2 Preheat the oven to 350°F. On the stovetop, in a large frying pan, heat oil to medium high heat. Place the chicken pieces in the pan. Watch the oil carefully, you don't want the oil to be so hot as to burn the chicken, you just want to lightly brown it. Brown the chicken pieces on all sides, turning when necessary.

3 Butter a roasting pan generously. Arrange the chicken pieces in it, pour broth over it, and bake at 350°F until the chicken is tender and cooked, about 40-50 minutes for pieces from a 5-pound chicken. You know that the chicken is done by poking a thigh with a meat fork (the thigh meat is dark meat and takes longer to cook than white breast meat). If pink or red juice runs out of the hole made by the fork, the chicken is not done. If only clear juice runs out, the chicken is done. (Since I used the boneless, skinless chicken, it only took about 20 minutes, the time it took me to make the rest of it, to cook through)

4 About 20 minutes before the chicken is expected to be done, start cooking the onions and mushrooms. In the same frying pan as was used to cook the chicken, empty the pan of all but 2 Tbsp of oil. Add the onions to the pan and sauté on medium heat until softened. Add the crushed garlic clove and the mushrooms and cook until mushrooms are no longer crisp. Remove and discard the garlic, and add the sour cream and the heavy cream to the onions and mushrooms. Lower the heat. Keep warm, but do not boil. Salt and pepper to taste. (I lost the garlic clove in there, so it stayed in)

5 When the chicken is done, remove from oven. Serve on a platter with the mushroom sauce spooned over it, or served on the side.

Serves 6 to 8.

Serve with noodles, rice, or Spanish Rice. (I lightly sauteed several large handfuls of baby spinach in just a little olive oil and served the chicken and sauce over that, with a large slice of sourdough bread on the side)

This was a very quick and yummy recipe and I will definitely make it again. We also have plenty of leftovers for tomorrow's lunch.

The Story of My Stuff

2008-04-27T16:18:00.000-07:00

I have my 3rd load of laundry in the washer, so I am pleased with that. I need to pull out one old towel from the bag to keep for my hair dying purposes and get rid of the rest. That will cut down substantially on the pile of laundry I have to look at.

For my birthday back in March I think I had mentioned that I received some human moneys in the form of a BB&B gift card and an AmEX gift card, so I bought matching towels for both bathrooms and some new nice sheets for our bed.

And so ALL of the old towels can go, minus one for hair dying and other things that may stain. I need to pull one out and get rid of the rest.

I feel so grown up with my nice sheets and matching towels! Of course I haven't opened the sheets yet. I was waiting to rearrange the room (done), have it completely organized and perfect (almost) and to get a new comforter from IKEA to put the duvet onto (not yet), THEN we can open the sheets. And I haven't used any of the new towels for our bathroom, not until I battle our bathroom and win will I even allow myself to wash them.
I also bought a cool pack of bamboo utensils on my birthday with my gift cards and just opened them to use one this week.
I did start using our new canisters last week, and once we buy a coffee grinder I will finally bust out the new French press :)
I like things to be just so before I allow myself to enjoy anything new, so it's something I get to work for and get a lot of mental reward for. I think this is one of the reasons that I can live with only the rare treat of something new (to me) or even brand new, is because I really make sure to anticipate it, appreciate it, and prepare for it.
I think a lot of people take "things" for granted. I really try not to do that. I try to take care of my things, only get what I really really like and will find joy in for a long time to come, and take my time with them. The more it goes, the less impulse buying I do, and the less I regret any purchases I make.

Once again, I highly recommend watching The Story of Stuff if you haven't already.

In what ways do you treat yourself? Do you appreciate your stuff? Or am I just weird like that?

Sean Bell

2008-04-27T08:53:00.000-07:00

That those men were simply aquitted in this case is very disturbing and upsetting to me.

This has me almost to the point of tears. That one officer, ONE, could fire 31 bullets into one unarmed man and be aquitted with NO charges of wrongdoing is beyond my comprehension.
That the lawyers for the officers would stoop so low as to portray the surviving victims as dishonest shouldn't surprise me, that's the name of the game, right? It all just makes me sick.

Even if it all went down exactly as the officers say, still having one officer fire 31 bullets makes me think that he shouldn't be allowed to carry a gun, he should undergo some major evaluation, and for others' safety he should be taken off of the streets as an officer of the law. I do not think that is an unreasonable course of action. I don't think that officer can be trusted to act in the best interest of those he has sworn to protect.

But no. Nothing like that.

My heart goes out to the Bell family and the other victims of the shooting. I cannot imagine how painful that verdict must have been to hear.

The Great Purge of 08 Redux

2008-04-27T00:24:00.000-07:00

Wow. I am overwhelmed with it all.

I have been having crippling pain from SPD the last few nights, and I am very limited in my physical abilities. This is driving me nuts. I can be totally lazy sometimes, but when I am ready to clean, that means that it's going to be clean before I am done with it. And being so physically limited is really like torture to me. I just want to get down and dirty with a toothbrush and some grout!
But this is a post about progress, so I will stop lamenting and focus on what I am actually getting done, bit by bit.

Today we did get some things done, and that was to rearrange our room, and set up the crib and get the baby stuff somewhat organized and put away better so it isn't just a big scary pile like it was.
We decided to leave a side off of the crib and leave the plastic on the mattress. The cats will deem it absolutely necessary to explore this new and exciting thing. If it's like this they cannot scratch the wood trying to jump over and into it, and the mattress is covered so won't get dirty.

It's not the best thing, but it's a vast improvement. The white thing facing the wall is a small rolling cart I got for baby clothes and such. I have to leave it against the wall facing the wrong way with something on top of it to try to deter the cats. It's not made to hold very much, it's not very sturdy at all. I didn't expect it to be when I got it. It was cheap, light, and pretty much all I needed while the baby was in our room. I didn't think about the globulous lumps of curiosity that live with us, too. I'm glad those creatures don't have opposable thumbs or we would be doomed. It's bad enough when they deadbolt you out of your own home (yes, dear Midna, that would be you).

You may remember how it was before all of this:

And now:
From the front:

I also took many pictures of other problem areas in the house (read: the entire rest of the house), and will post those as I tackle them. I figure visuals with before and after will be good for my resolve. I may not be able to the whirlwind of cleaning activity that I am used to, but isn't "slow and steady wins the race" the way that one goes? At least I tell myself that, since this is so foreign to my normal MO. :)

Tired

2008-04-26T23:10:00.001-07:00

Today has been a very nice, but long day.

I didn't get to sleep until about 4:30 last night, but managed to get up around 10 and make it out to the farmer's market around 11.

Today's find were:
hydroponic tomatoes - $5
a huge English cucumber - $4
some goat cheese with chimchurri mixed in - $4
a dozen eggs - $3.50
So, that was what? $16.50, not too bad, considering I paid $4 for one cucumber, but it was delicious, and the fluff-rat agrees. Really, the eggs are the main thing I really want to be able to purchase every week there. There is a lot of produce there, but it's mainly onions (holy cow there are a lot of people selling onions), still a lot of "winter" type greens, and now our strawberry season is over :( It hasn't even started for most of the country, and ours is over and gone for another year.

Then we went to Costco. Wow. I love that place. I'm working towards more local food, etc, but I would have a hard time giving up my Costco membership.
This is what we got today:
12 lbs of baking soda (for making cleaning supplies)
2 gallons of white vinegar (for making cleaning supplies)
2 lbs of shelled pecan halves
1qt 1/2 & 1/2
1qt heavy cream
3 half gallons organic soymilk
1lb baby portabellas
1lb organic baby spinach
1lb organic spring greens
6lb organic tofu
6lb pears
10 lbs onions
2.2lbs Ruta Maya Organic coffee beans
2 loaves sourdough (they were still warm and wonderful with the goat cheese)
2lb strawberries
4.5lbs organic raisin bran cereal
1 pair jeans for Chris
30oz Kalamata Olive dip
12 pack 100% recycled papertowels
2lb cashew granola-ish type of stuff (best snack food ever)

And you know what the total was? With tax it was $131.24.
You just can't beat that.

Love me some Costco, really I do.
I read a lot of blogs from serious couponers and CVSers and comparatively this may seem like a lot, but overall this works much better for us because this is what we eat. I rarely ever see anything with a coupon and on sale that I would use.

I have made it through my first week of meal planning and I think it went very well. I need to work on this coming week's meal plan. I have tomorrow night worked out, since we ended up putting off making dinner after we both filled up on green smoothies I made.
Then we went out for tea with friends, and later when we got hungry split a wonderful masala dosai from a veggie Indian place. When we came home I just cut up the humongous cucumber and several tomatoes for us and we each had large plates of that for "dinner".

So, tomorrow night, I will be making chicken with mushroom cream sauce, using the baby portabellas. I found the recipe at Simply Recipes and I am always pleased with her recipes. They always come out great when I try them. I plan to serve the chicken and sauce on a bed of wilted spinach with sourdough on the side instead of noodles or rice. I'm also using boneless skinless chicken breast, too. I am not sure how that will work. I will be able to cut the cooking time down to about 20 minutes, but it won't have the same ability to brown. Meh, I am sure it will still be very good.

If I am making anything involves meat, 9 times out of 10 it will be using boneless skinless chicken breast. My husband has a serious aversion to meat with bones in it :) He's not picky about much of anything, and that's one of his few weird issues with food. His mother and step father would take him to dinner and my husband would sit alone at his own table in the Thai restaurants as a child with his plain rice and soy sauce, covering his eyes so as not to see them picking the meat off of their whole fried fish and such. Heh. Of course, my husband being born in Singapore and living in the Phillipines as a very young child loved curry and other regional foods from the area. Really, he's not a picky eater.

I do cook whole chicken or cut up chicken on occasion, I just debone it for him. I don't mind at all, I find it endearing.

I have had a long day, and am looking forward into crawling into bed soon. I think I will end up eating a small bowl of cereal before bed, though. The baby sure does like cereal before bed!

On Being a Good Enough Parent

2008-04-26T01:26:00.000-07:00

Cathy over at Chief Family Officer participated in the My Life in Six Words meme, and I think hers is a great one: I'm not perfect, but good enough.

She also asked other people out there reading to talk about being a "good enough" parent.

This was a very hard place for me to get to in my life. I have an unusual situation among most of the mothers that I know in that I am not the primary custodial parent to my boys. It took me four years of very difficult processing to get to a place of being as ok with this as I think I can be. Of course, it sucks more than you can possibly imagine, and it's not something that most mothers can even fathom. I couldn't either for a very long time.

I've blogged before about my very difficult time with severe PPD after my 2nd child was born, along with undiagnosed and spiraling out of control bipolarII. I was also in a relationship that I didn't feel supported in and putting that and the decision to leave that marriage in the midst of all of this going on made things impossible for me to be a full time mother as I had been since the birth of my oldest child.

I felt completely lost and helpless and like I was simply a bad person in my inability to communicate with my spouse, take care of my children perfectly all of the time, and to deal with my severe depression over it all.

I had a bit of a mental breakdown and could not sustain that life. I still stayed home with the kids full time after we separated, for nearly a year, and I still just felt overwhelmed and incapable of taking care of myself well and exhausting myself in every way struggling to care for the kids. When he filed the divorce and the custody arrangement came up, there wasn't anything different I could have done at the time. That was my biggest obstacle, accepting that it was the best decision at the time. Especially once I was treated and could see that it was the mental illness and not me simply being a bad person.

Since that time I have had to do a lot of work to forgive myself, to stop blaming myself, and to come to terms with the impact my mental illness had. For a long time I wanted nothing more than to go back and do anything I could do to change the way things happened.

But I had to rethink that, because I did do the best I could, and I did do everything that was in my capability at the time.

This is something I have to live with now. While I could attempt to change it around and take it to court and all of that, not only is it beyond my financial means, but I feel like it could be detrimental to my children. I have just recently seen what kind of stress a parent can put on their children by just this very thing. It isn't fair to the kids and it can be a selfish road to take.

If I felt that my children were suffering greatly in this situation, I would, but while there are definite difficulties in the situation (mostly involving me and their father at times), things are ok for them. Not ideal for me, but they are ok. My children are well taken care of and happy, they have two sets of very loving and involved parents who make them their priority, they have lived their lives in this way for nearly 5 years now. I would jump at the chance for things to be different, but not at the detriment of my kids.

This is the way my reality of mothering is, and I have come to accept it.

I did what was the best I could do, and it was good enough. My kids will undoubtedly have some things to work through as they get older, but I think to a certain extent most people do. Even if they have an "ideal" childhood, there are things that will crop up, and will need to be worked through.

I am not a perfect mother, but I am an awesome mother. I kick all kinds of ass when it comes to parenting my children, and I know that I do.

It also took me 4 years of adamantly denying even the thought of ever having another child. I sincerely did not believe I deserved to raise another one, since I felt so much like I failed the children I already had.

After a lot of work in dealing with my feelings about my situation, I finally got to the point of being ok with having done what I could and that it wasn't my fault. I didn't choose the mental illness, I didn't choose the PPD, I didn't choose to be unable to care properly for my children for a period of time.

And once I worked through all of this, lo and behold, I was finally able to also realize that I did want another child. Another child with my husband,, my life partner, my best friend, the awesome step parent to my children. And of course, a month after we started talking about it and we decided to try in about a year, I felt a little funny and peed on a stick, and here I am, at 27 weeks pregnant with our daughter.

With this preganancy, there has been the acceptance of not being able to breastfeed due to the medications I have to take to control my illness and be able to be a good mother. And that I don't actually want to co-sleep for 3 years this time. I just don't. And I am not doing cloth diapers this time.

I had a little bit of mourning over the breastfeeding thing, but I know that this is what I need to do. It still hits me sometimes, and makes me a little sad, but I know that my mental health is the most important part of my ability to parent. The other things are just my own decisions and wisdom of my own limitations and what causes me undue stress, etc. Well managed mental health care for is the best thing I can give all of my children and my family and myself, this is the first priority always.

And I also have had occasion bouts of guilt when it comes to my two oldest children. They have been less than thrilled with this baby, and I know that it comes from (because they have told me) them not being here with me all of the time like this baby will be. That's hard. But I do everything I can to allow their feelings, to try to reassure them that they will not receive any less attention from me because of the baby, etc. There is only so much I can say to them to make them feel better, so they will just have to see it to believe it.

I also drink more caffeine that I should while pregnant sometimes, and other times all I eat is cereal and soymilk. Meh. Don't sweat the small stuff, I say.

Wow, this has become a long post. I'm sure there are some other things I would have liked to have touched on, but brain melty and it's late.
I also wanted to add in a six word thing, but haven't thought of one for myself. I will think about it some more and post it another time. It's 4am and I want to go to the farmer's market in the morning. If only I could sleep!

I Can Live Without It, Too.

2008-04-25T17:15:00.000-07:00

Rebecca over at Green Baby Guide has a post about Baby Gear I Lived Without. I was just going to leave her a comment telling her how much I agreed, but it was far too long, so I decided to go ahead and post about it over here.
I know I have mentioned before my dislike of baby "gear" and all, but I figure I'll make a post more focusing on what I DID use.
As many of you know, this is baby #3 for me, but with a 6 year gap in between my last this time it's starting all over with baby stuff collecting.

I've made some different decisions this time around but let me tell you, with my first, there were very few items I needed and I was one of those moms sucked in to having a registry based on the infamous checklist. (I've become a lot wiser in the nearly 9 years since I became a mother for the first time!)

The things that came in handy with my first:
bouncy seat to put him in when I needed to pee or eat (didn't have a moses basket)
a sling,
exersaucer once he was a bit older (I personally love these things)
a $20 umbrella stroller after he could hold his head up well.
I could have done without anything else! Seriously. Nothing else was EVER used, including the crib (well, it was used to hold unfolded clean laundry). I used cloth diapers and breastfed and co-slept, so that was pretty much it. Oh, a very small black Carter's diaper bag that looked like one of those square lunch bags. That was a great bag! Big enough for a few cloth diapers, some wipes and a dirty diaper sack and it doubled as a purse for me so I didn't have more than one bag to carry.

With my 2nd I did get a glider, because I didn't have anything that rocked and thought it would be really nice to have and it was. Some friends chipped in and got one for me, and it lasted for about a year then fell apart. I don't have anything that rocks now, either, so I am going to see if I can find one free from anyone I know or Freecycle. It can really be anything that rocks and is comfortable, not necessarily a glider (the gliders really are totally ugly, aren't they?)

With #2, I knew what I wanted to add to the mix and what I didn't, and I've figured out even more now with #3 on her way. All of my shopping has been at the thrift store, and the majority of everything else has come free from friends.

Which means overall I have a few additional things that I may or may not use already, but I didn't shell out for it, nor did anyone else, at least not recently for new prices. I plan to use the crib this time around, and I got one for free. I did shell out $50 for a new mattress but I was offered a few. I just felt better knowing it was new. I did get a monitor that I will be able to use this time, too. If I am outside then it will be nice to have.

So, basically these are all items that I have put thought into and didn't just follow those silly checklists that seem to be everywhere. Of course I've had babies, so have first hand knowledge, but I think any first time moms can benefit from knowing these things.

I frequent the motheringdotcommune boards and in my due date club we have an ongoing thread about this very thing. It's very nice to hear what other mothers are finding useful and what was a waste of money and resources, especially for those first time moms who can really use this information. And it's funny, because there is very little variation across the board on what was needed and what wasn't.

What items were your necessities with your child(ren)? What could you live without and what came in useful?

Lunch Break

2008-04-22T15:09:00.001-07:00

I did two loads of laundry today, one was put through the dryer (socks, undies, kids clothes, pjs) and the other to be hung to dry. (Quick Green Tip for Earth Day: Even if you cannot have a clothes line, you can still hang a lot of things on hangers and dry on the shower bar!)

I have had a semi productive day. I managed to organize under the kitchen sink and the spice cabinet and the teas and baking stuff. 2 loads of laundry... Wow, doesn't really seem like a lot.

Here is an adorable video! I found it on Tara's blog, Fiddle Mama. Yay, green smoothies! I didn't make one yet today, but I did get green powder, a bunch of kale and spinach, some goji and acai stuff, bananas, mangoes, pears, oranges, strawberries (which I am out of now, boo, I hope there is still some at the Farmer's Market Saturday). I have been digging the green smoothies every day. They are goooood.

Making yellow dal and basmati rice for dinner. Should be about done and Chris will be home from work very soon. There he is, I just heard the car!

Tackle It Tuesday

2008-04-22T11:09:00.000-07:00

Well, I was just gearing myself up for getting off my butt and spending some quality time tackling a good amount of what needs to be done around here.

One thing I am disappointed about is not having quarters to do the laundry. Unfortunately with the whole SPD thing I cannot carry more than a load at a time to the laundry room, but I figure if I deal with a load today, then several tomorrow when Chris is off of work, then finish up whatever I have left by the end of the week I'll be in good shape.

My sleep schedule is kinda wonky, I seem to be sleeping more lately, too. I fall asleep early and wake up later than I would like.

But today I will make a dent in what needs to be done so that when I survey the house it won't look so bleak. And I need to sort through things and post on Freecycle or decide if I want to try to resell it somewhere. I thought that the convenience of Freecycle would simply be worth it to get rid of things, but I think what they say about perceived value may be true. A lot of people when asking for the stuff and being the one I give it to, seem to think nothing of not showing up when agreed upon. It's very frustrating.

But anyway, I feel like I am procrastinating. Ok, I know I am, so I will update my progress later, but I am off to tackle what needs to be done!

Toes, hammie, and more!

2008-04-21T21:30:00.001-07:00

Now for a fluffy post of random fun in the last few days.

Saturday evening we went up to a local place for some live music, some boiled crawfish, and good friends and even firespinners (which enthralled the kids for a good long while)

Miles was really more interested in playing with his crawfish than eating it, but he did eat some.

We also added to our little family by a few ounces a few days ago. This is Lucy Samurai Crimefighter Kachu. She is an adorable dwarf hamster, and actually very friendly and curious. She is painfully adorable. And so wee tiny!

And my best friend treated me to a pedicure and manicure today! I am not sure that I have ever done my nails pink. Ever. I have always done black, red, so dark it's almost black red, purple, etc. Never pink. at least not since I was a preteen, but I don't remember ever. I've never been one to have my nails done on a regular basis.
It's so girly and fun! I like it!
And you know, I have wanted to get a pedicure for years and years, but I honestly think that may have been the first one I've had...
Now I just REALLY need to go get my eyebrows done... Yikes.

And now, possibly more than you ever wanted to know about me!
I even shaved my legs. It had been very near a year if not over. And I made the mistake of my underarms, too. I try this on occasion, and today I tried the baking soda thing, then my new tea tree oil deodorant, hoping this would help part of my reasons for disliking shaving.
Yeah, no. It's awful. I sweat way more and smell almost immediately with my armpits shaved.
It's gross, then it gets ITCHY when it starts to grow back, etc. I like them shaved theoretically, but in actual practice it always sucks and I always regret it. I will try to keep it up for a few weeks this time, though, and see if it gets any better, mostly for science.
Just really can't figure out why I get so much more BO with shaved pits, so I intend to experiment.
Science, it's a wonderful thing.

2008-04-19T21:29:00.001-07:00

I don't want to talk too much about it lest it doesn't happen for some reason, but unless things go horribly awry or it's just far too broken for us to deal with, we were given an older (91) Volvo station wagon this evening. Yay!
It needs some work, but person said that he didn't think it would need too much. He knows a bit about cars, so I'm hoping he'll be right on this. Schweeeet.

So Many Great Blog Posts

2008-04-16T22:50:00.000-07:00

Since Earth Day is coming up and I have so many fantastic blogs that I read, I'm going to stick with sharing posts today that are about the environment, frugality, consumption, the 3 r's and practical advice for living your life and lowering your carbon footprint.

Are you familiar with greenwashing? Jennifer over at Tree Hugging Family has a post pointing people in the direction of a great list of Sins of Greenwashing, a good guide to make sure you aren't falling for that type of dishonest advertising.

Cathy over at Chief Family Officer has a post about The 29 Day Giving Challenge. I like that it's an honest question about whether giving makes you feel good. I don't believe in altruism in general, personally. Since I am purging my own things, this is a great idea.

Peggy at Tree Hugging Family has a post about washing your laundry in cold water. I wash everything I have in cold except for an occasional load of just whites, maybe once or twice a month, and except for kids clothes, jeans, socks and towels, everything else is hung to dry. I think it extends the life of your clothes as well as saves tons of energy!

There is an April Tiny Challenge happening over at Tiny Choices. This is the first check in and many of the participants have some great tiny ideas of how to make changes that are easy to implement but make an impact over time.

Here's another great one from Jennifer at Tree Hugging Family: Five ways to conserve water in less than one minute.

So Canada has been the first to take the step to call BPA "dangerous". I've read this all over the place at this point, but I read it at Treehugger first. Go Canada! And I already felt strongly about this after reading some of the information out there, and this is why I am insisting on BPA free bottles and toys for the baby.

MerchantShips at Frugal Hacks has a good post about the tendency to end up spending more on things that we don't necessarily need because it's such a good deal, or bypassing large purchases but spending an equal amount on a lot of little things. This was an issue for me in the past, but I don't do this very often any more. I am in awe of CVS-ing, but truthfully I don't plan to even put the effort out to start, how often to I actually buy that stuff each year? Except for tp not that often!

Heather over at Freebies 4 Mom posted about a printable $5 Coupon for a Brita pitcher! A lot of talk lately has been about plastic water bottles. Besides the icky plastic that leeches who knows what (remember the BPA thing?), used plastic bottles contributes so much to landfills every year! I don't drink bottled at home, though I do admit to keeping some in the car for the kids and myself while we are out. I'm so weirded out by the reusable SIGG bottles and I don't know what that's about. Should make the switch. But we drink a LOT of water.

kat at Eating Liberally has a fantastic post all about one of my favorite things, and I really encourage a full read.

THIS is how schools should ALL be looking at things. From Treehugger.

And just one more: How simple steps can put $678k in your pocket. Again, from Treehugger.

There are so many great blogs out there and this is just the bare few that I am sharing right now.

I have tons of other posts I want to share soon, mostly tasty recipes. I want to at least try one of them before I do so I can post results :)

Hope you enjoy this list of linky goodness. And turn out the lights!

How things change

2008-04-15T09:29:00.000-07:00

The thrill of having a girl this time has thrown all of my gender neutral ideas for clothing and such straight out the window, to a certain extent.

Back in the day, woe was the pimply faced teenager working the McD's drive through who would ask if I wanted a "boy or girl" toy. I would get mad and tell them to tell me WHAT the toys were, and kids could play with whichever one they preferred and it shouldn't be based on gender. (My boys ALWAYS picked the "boy" toys, though...) And I still totally agree with that.
But when it is coming to clothes and such, I am choosing "girl" stuff like crazy.

And I have also come to realize that nature vs. nurture doesn't really make a difference. I have two boys who have never wanted anything girly at all. They both were into construction vehicles, cars, trains, etc from very very young, no matter what kind of toys I gave them to choose from.

It's possible I will have a girl that doesn't give a fig about anything girly at all, but that comes down to the individual and I realized that you can't really do much one way or the other to influence what your kids will prefer.

If I get a girl gendered kid that only wants cars and to play in the mud, great! If I get a girly girl that loves princesses and dolls and anything pink, great. Not much I will be able to do or want to do other than offer choices about it. I was a bit of both. I LOVED my brother's hot wheels and he-man stuff and I slept with a big plastic incredible hulk doll for a few years. But I also loved barbies and playing house, and other "girly" things, too.

I don't ever believe in telling a child that they shouldn't be a certain way because it's not "feminine" or ever justifying some jerk like behavior just because "that's how boys are". Those are the things that are total bs. But as far as the individual, they will have their own preferences having way more to do with their personality over their having a penis or vulva, you know?

IF one of my boys would have wanted to dress in a tutu and a tiara, I was totally ok with that, too. (They never did, though) And I had a hell of a time ever finding cool boys clothes that didn't dress them like mini frat boys *shudder*.

Max has chosen to have long hair, but at times he contemplates cutting it because he hates to brush it as he is very tender headed AND because he gets mistaken for a girl sometimes. This has been his choice, since it's his hair and he can choose what he wants to do with it.
It's kind of like me being ADAMANTLY opposed to circumcision. I would never cut off another person's body part without their express permission. If it's something that they choose or need to have later in life, that's going to be for them to decide.

Overall, I just think I have raised some amazing PEOPLE thus far, regardless of gender, and I will continue to allow personal choices for all of my children based on their preferences, not gender.

But I am enjoying buying the "girl" stuff for the first year before she'll be able to tell me to cut that sh*t out if that's what she wants :P

New Sofa!

2008-04-14T21:11:00.001-07:00

I am very pleased.

Thrifty Finds

2008-04-13T18:20:00.000-07:00

I am quite pleased with my thrifting today. I only got myself a couple of tanks and a sports bra, one t-shirt for Max, and a couple of baby things, mostly a few little hats. That stuff was $11. But then!!

I have wanted a decent full sized couch for a loooong time. We have one oversized chair and a love seat. The love seat is green and brown and doesn't really match anything at all. We got it a few years back at a garage sale, and it's worked since. It's not hideous, but just doesn't go and is smallish. So today at the thrift store there was a full sized couch in a nice neutral tan that very nearly will match the chair. It has a little wear, but you know, that's ok with me. The cat is not all that great about not scratching the furniture as it is. It was $40. That's right, $40! We're going to get Chris' dad's truck tonight then go get it in the morning. I'm not sure how we'll get it in the house, since I can't lift anything, but I'm sure we'll manage somehow.

I need to post the loveseat tonight on Freecycle, and make room for the new to me couch. And it's pretty darn comfy, too. For all the nights I fall asleep on the love seat having a full size couch will be AWESOME! I'll post a picture when it gets home.

YAY!

You know, here 's a funny thing...

2008-04-13T11:05:00.000-07:00

So, my best friend called and her tax return came in, and she was wanting to go pick it up from her parents' house north of the city.
So guess who is going with her rather than staying home and cleaning and such? And guess who is going to the big thrift store out there and will probably end up getting a few things.
Ah, oh well. I'm good at setting a limit on how much I will spend and sticking with it.

I'll post any good finds later.

Oh What a Beautiful Morning!

2008-04-13T10:05:00.000-07:00

Oh what a beautiful day! Using this day to clean, organize and practice frugality.

Today is another gorgeous day. I didn't take Chris in to work, though, trying to be good about gas. So, home it is, a day of more cleaning, I suppose. Not having the car also keeps me more on task. And not only does it save gas, it decreases the possibility of my spending money on food, coffee, stuff of any sort that I would happen to come across while being out and about.

I am getting better at becoming thrifty, though we did eat out with friends last night ($14), then went out for bubble tea ($9), yikes. No big deal, but that we'd done precisely the same thing 2 nights before, well, it adds up.
I was going to talk a little about the whole couponing thing, but I think I will leave that for it's own post.

I'll quit procrastinating and go get started on what I need to be doing. Soon.

The Great Purge of 08

2008-04-12T23:55:00.000-07:00

My house is in absolute chaos as the spring cleaning continues. Oh, and remember how I said I didn't have to worry about getting this done in a hurry? Right. See previous post about me actually working again next week, oops! :P House already destroyed, no turning back now. I can probably get a lot done tomorrow.

Anyway, I need to figure out what to Freecycle and what to sell on Craigslist, and what we're going to do with the books. I would love to do a book exchange, but realistically I am bad at follow through on this stuff, and despise the post office, so it's probably best to just not go there right now. I have learned how to feel out my limitations and how to not over commit, and I feel like this was one of the most important life skills to learn!

Here are a few piles of the evidence of the purging happening at my house right now:

And here are some adorable baby things we have gotten for Madeleine:

And here is the giant pile of baby "stuff" that is in a corner of our room. Hmm... maybe I can go pick up the crib tomorrow so that we can set it up and get a lot of this organized. That would be nice!
And the most adorable red shiny shoes ever! If you know me at all you have probably heard mention of my weakness for red and shiny things.

My Tomato!

2008-04-12T23:41:00.000-07:00

Here is my first cherry tomato, grown on my patio!

Midna was fascinated with this thing, as the progression shows. I didn't get a picture of it without her head in it, and I didn't crop it out cause I thought it was funny. She managed to carry it off twice. Strange animal.

I gave her the green bit to chew on while I ate it, and it was good. :)

A Great Quote and UU

2008-04-12T22:40:00.000-07:00

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world - Anne Frank

I found that quote on the UUA website. That works so well with my feelings on last nights post.
Because of a comment on that post it got me thinking about getting in gear to get back involved in a UU church again. There is a small one right down the street from me, and we've been discussing going for a long while.

If you don't know anything at all about Unitarian Universalism, I'll just give you a little from the website that synopsizes it well:
Unitarian Universalism is a liberal religion that encompasses many faith traditions. Unitarian Universalists include people who identify as Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Pagans, Atheists, Agnostics, Humanists, and others. As there is no official Unitarian Universalist creed, Unitarian Universalists are free to search for truth on many paths.

To quote the Rev. Marta Flanagan, "We uphold the free search for truth. We will not be bound by a statement of belief. We do not ask anyone to subscribe to a creed. We say ours is a non-creedal religion. Ours is a free faith."

Although we uphold shared principles, individual Unitarian Universalists have varied beliefs about everything from scripture to rituals to God.

I would really like the boys to have the Religious Education that is offered with the UU church. I have a friend who has been heavily involved with RE in the UUA for a long time, and I think the RE is wonderful. We are not religious, nor spriritual, but I do want my children to learn about religion, all religion, and why it exists, what it means to various people, etc. I want them to have the critical thinking skills that will allow them to look at the world in a well informed way. I want them to be accepting of religion and other people's beliefs, but not to fall victim to it. I was too easily influenced by a guy I thought was cute, and that got me into a well known cult for many years in my teens and early 20s.

Also, they have an amazing sex ed program for kids, too.

I do want to get back to going to a UU congregation. I saw on the billboard a few months ago for the one down the street that the Sunday sermon was going to be on Humanist Themes in Star Trek. I mean, really. That's kind of awesome.

Anyway, just something I got to thinking about that I keep putting off. UU is really awesome and something I would like to do again. I am also kind of shy about going to a new place like that. Which is silly. It's a church. They like new people. They'll be nice. Well, putting it out here will probably get me to do something about it. I will report back on my progress of church going.

A Nice Saturday

2008-04-12T14:08:00.000-07:00

After my initial annoyance at the husband for changing my alarm and me missing out on the garage sale I'd looked forward to all week, I have had a pleasant day.

Chris' dad came over this morning and we went to have lunch at my favorite Indian restaurant, then to Fry's. I got Max the next 2 Naruto manga for him to read, volumes 5 & 6, and the most adorable stuffed squirrel for the baby. Chris also got a new laser pointer for the kitties, and Chris' dad got me a new wireless card for my laptop. YAY! Working wireless. It's a gorgeous day to be outside with the computer for a little while.

ALSO, good news, Chris' dad said that I will still be able to work next week, as PJ is still trying to finish her project. So that's awesome.

We're going to hang out with people later, I think, but right now I just want to be home and lazy for a bit.

Dreams of Renewable Energy Sheep

2008-04-11T22:36:00.000-07:00

Today a friend and I were discussing Doug Fine's book Farewell My Subaru, and looking around at land outside of the city. I want to talk a little more about this.

This isn't the life for everyone, I understand that.
I think that people can take personal responsibility and live better in any setting. I also firmly believe that taking that time to reevaluate one's personal living habits is becoming increasingly important. It's actually getting urgent. It is not some kooky thing being cooked up to frighten people, but the way that we live HAS to change. It will not survive for very much longer as it is, and everyone will be forced to change. If that's what it takes, people.
It's unfortunate that not enough people are really concerned with the way that they live and choose to see it all as "somebody else's problem" (SEP field, anyone?). Oh well, can't really do much about that, right? I guess we'll all learn how much of an impact all of those carbon miles are having soon enough.

Anyway, I don't see my desire to move outside of the city as anything that will become necessary. I think that city community building and urban reclamation is an awesome way to go, too. Just not what I would like for me. I think that no matter what falls before us, living in the city is still a viable option to any who choose it.

So why do I want to live outside of the urban jungle? It's about lifestyle choice. I have expressed before in my blog my realization that any type of office work or "career" is not the way I will go, and that it took me most of my life to this point to realize I should stop looking for that one thing I want to be when I grow up.
I have also come to realize the things that I do want. I want to run a household, I want to have lots of animals, I want to live simply, I want to participate in my local community in a real way. I want to have time to do the things I enjoy and that matter to me.

When I move outside of the city it will not be in order to cut down on my reliance on the consumer aspect of my modern life. This is starting now, not later. This is going to be and continue to be a progression. I am not waiting for something big to happen to change the way that I live. I am making my "tiny choices" now, and I am learning and doing more each day. By the time I am able to go where I want to be I don't plan for it to be such a vast unrecognizable change that it will be overwhelming and leave me feeling a sense of loss and like I have entered an entirely alien landscape. When it's time to move much of my home off of the grid I want it to be the next natural logical step in the progression of my lifestyle. Not some random thing I am going to do tomorrow.

You know, I hear so many people, when bringing up living outside of the city their ideas about it being some primitive wilderness with no plumbing and an outhouse, or WORSE, no highspeed internet. This is strange to me. I read TONS of blogs from many farmers and homesteaders and ranchers, and I don't think any of them have to send a carrier pigeon to post to their blog. Nor do they have to use dial up. And these are people in very remote areas much of the time.
And taking another look at Doug Fine here as another example. At some point in his book he talks about being out in a deer stand in the middle of nowhere in New Mexico with his laptop and wireless, surfing the internet. Doesn't sound particularly primitive to me, even with his managing to get nearly off the grid.

I want farm animals. I want my life to be full of animals for food, for companionship, for endless amusement. In return I can give them the best life that I can, a warm place to sleep, food, safety. I think this is a fair trade. I feel that my time spent caring for these animals is worthy of my effort. I won't look back on it in 20 years and regret doing this and think "what a waste of my life".

I want to grow much of my own food, and barter with others in my like minded community for other things with the food I have grown. Money is totally overrated and overused. I don't believe in buying new if you can buy used on just about anything, and I think that people have so much more to offer. I don't need some cheap plastic crap from a sweatshop in China when a person in my community has what I need or can build it or provide materials or whichever way it can work. I think this is an example of the type of primitive lifestyle I could get behind.

I want to do all of this with a small group of like minded people who are willing to split the work and the land, and to grow together as a community.

It's late and I don't have this very well organized into a post, but this is the way it's going to be for today.

Have you made any of your own tiny choices? What have they been? What are your plans for the future? How have you worked to relearn new better habits (I still forget my reusable shopping bags from time to time, argh!)?

Unemployed, I think

2008-04-10T15:10:00.000-07:00

Well, I am pretty sure today was my last day of steady work :(

I knew it was coming and I got an additional 2 weeks out of it, but the money has been SO NICE. I am glad that my step-mother-in-law is officially retired now, though. She hates office work as much as I do. She will be able to devote more time to the things she loves, like her dog rescue organization.

I am so afraid of being in the same financial position we were in before the first of the year when I started this gig.

Being this pregnant with severe SPD means that my options for bringing in any additional income at this point are very very limited. I would really love to be in a physical condition to do green cleaning and organizing again, but until after this bebe is born it's just not an option at all.

Also, volunteering my time at many of the things I would like to is limited, too. With physical limitations right now, as well as financial considerations due to the price of gas alone means that unless I am bringing in some cash it doesn't make sense for me to have the car on most days.

Argh. Hopefully this means I'll get a lot done around the house. I think nesting is kicking in for me, so this is good!

Stuff, literally this time

2008-04-09T23:17:00.001-07:00

So, this evening the husband and I tackled some much neglected house work, and we purged books. I am having a very unpleasant allergy reaction to the dust as we speak.

One of our bookshelves is almost completely empty, except for the bottom shelf where we keep comics and graphic novels. I moved everything else over to the other bookshelf, all fiction and a large part of the non-fiction. I am hoping to be able to empty the bookshelf in the dining area and move that bookshelf out of there. We can't sit around the table with it in there, so we cram into two sides when we all have dinner.

I am once again contemplating getting rid of the ginormous "entertainment center". I would love to get something smaller for the tv, something with DOORS. We don't watch tv, it's only used for occasional video games and dvds. I hate having a tv as a focal point of any room.

I have several small appliances I listed last week on Freecycle, which were snatched up in moments after the post. Me & the woman that got them have had a hard time matching up schedules for her to pick up, but that has opened up much needed cabinet space in the woefully small (for me and my foodie habits) kitchen.

I still need to purge the kids' books. They are excited at the prospect of getting a new book each at half-price books and making more room on their bookshelf.

One of my favorite parts of living in a smaller space is that "stuff" doesn't get stashed for very long without it making me kinda nuts (I hate clutter) and purging on a regular basis. Having that huge garage and absurd amounts of kitchen cabinet space made keeping things too easy, even though I would purge regularly there, too.
And to give credit where credit is due my husband has become totally ok with my purging and is good about it himself. As opposed to several years back. When I moved in with him, there were 3!! coffee carafes for coffee pots that no longer existed. They didn't even know necessarily where they had come from. But it took a good year to be able to get rid of them, I had to take to purging when Chris and our housemate weren't there.

I think I'm going to take the plunge and get rid of a lot of crafting stuff I have, too. I like the idea of crafting, but in reality it doesn't happen for me. Ever. I will keep my yarn for crochet amigurumi, and my temari things, but I think I am going to freecycle everything else. It takes up a significant amount of our closet space, and I do want to get a small freezer for in there.

I also want to find a small utility shelving unit for the front hall closet to use as additional pantry space. I like buying in bulk, really want to join a buying coop, and just cannot deal with the limited pantry space that shoots things out at my head most of the time.

So, while I am stockpiling baby stuff like it's the Prenatal Apocalypse, I am removing at least 3 times the amount of other things in our home.

One more baby thing for the day...

2008-04-07T21:36:00.000-07:00

This is what I've updated the registry to say:

MADELEINE WILL BE HERE SOON! GIFT US WITH YOUR PRESENCE, ANYTHING ELSE IS JUST THE WHIPPED CREAM ON TOP! DINNER BROUGHT OVER AFTER NEW BABY AND DOING OUR DISHES WHEN YOU DO, COOL THRIFTED BABY STUFF THAT CATCHES YOUR EYE, A MEAL FOR OUR FREEZER, GIFTS OF ALL TYPES WELCOME, NOT JUST STUFF ON HERE!

I like it!

Sweet!

2008-04-07T21:01:00.000-07:00

So, I called my best friend today and told her I felt like thrifting when I left work, so I went over there, then off we went to Value Village.

Well, guess what was in their daily 50% list today? BABY CLOTHES! Check out what I scored for $12:

1 hooded towel, 1 nightgown, 2 sleep sacks, 6 onesies, 7 footed pajamas, 1 sweater, 1 dress

I was pleased! This was me being very picky about what I decided to buy and putting anything back with the slightest staining or discoloration, or if I just didn't love it. So yeah, it was a successful shopping trip. I also got one nightgown and two t-shirts for me, and a t-shirt for each of the boys.
AND my best friend, who is hilarious with this whole baby business, bought about as much baby clothes for the baby as I did. I told her to hold onto to it and give it as a gift later :)
About my best friend and this baby thing: This is my afraid of children as a general rule, will NEVER have any children of her own cause she just doesn't want any, hopes that her in the hospital ovary badness last week means she is sterile provided it's not cancer and won't have to have her tubes tied best friend...
She was talking about taking Maddie out for pretty pretty princess dress shopping (or getting in the mud with her, depending on Maddie's personality). She amuses me with her baby excitement.

I will need to edit the registry and take off any onesies and such, as these types of things are no longer needed at all. I already had a bunch of clothes being amassed, now adding this to the mix means that I will NEVER run out of clean ones. Yay Thrifting!

To Clarify...

2008-04-07T20:37:00.000-07:00

When I say 3 showers, I mean there will be a possibility of one "traditional" shower that is for the benefit of the grandmothers for whom this is a first biological grandchild from my husband. His family also didn't get to participate in the births of my sons. They love my kids tremendously and do treat them as grandchildren but the boys didn't come into their lives until after babyhood.
The wonderful elderly lady I do caretaking for happens to be my husbands step-grandmother, and I know she is so excited about the baby at age 83, and I want her to be able to celebrate in the way she would feel "appropriate". So, a very small midafternoon, everyone gets dressed nice and has tea and cake, and I very uncomfortably open gifts while people stare at me (I HATE OPENING GIFTS IN FRONT OF PEOPLE!!!) with my step-mother in law, husband's step-sister, step-grandmother, and possibly my mother and step sister in law if my mom would actually drive here. Other than that, maybe I would politely beg my two closest friends to attend for moral support and so I have the appearance of friends there :p

As far as a blessingway goes, this is something that has been a tradition within my special mama circle for many years, and traditional gifts aren't usually given, but what is is FAR more beautiful and meaningful. With Miles, my wonderful woman centered shower involved things like cleansing of the feet with traditional herbs, henna, belly art, photos, poems, songs, a birthing necklace with a special bead and a story or throughts from each woman. A beeswax candle hand rolled containing all of the gentle birthing wishes and love written out on tissue paper from my mamas for me to burn and put out to the universe while I am laboring... It is an amazing thing, and I wouldn't dream of not having this amazing celebration with my mamas. This is going to be a very small thing with just a couple of mamas on a weekend where we already have something going on together.

And then, I would really love to have a "shower" (people often call the types of showers where they have most everything they need and just want to get together to celebrate a "sprinkle" rather than a shower, which is far too cutesy for me, and of course, makes me think immediately of Annie Sprinkle) to celebrate the impending baby with all of our friends. A potluck or barbque at a park with everyone and their kids, with a cake and possibly a pinata in bad taste, sumo wresting, etc. People can bring something if they would really like to (I won't tell people NOT to, because I think the thought of a new baby makes a lot of people, say, become insane and want to buy something PINK for the baby) and just a general good time to celebrate the life that is about to join us...

This is what I mean by 3 showers. I don't think it's excessive, I don't think it's selfish or a symptom of pregnancy insanity. I think it a great way to genuinely celebrate this new life in a myriad of ways with all of those important to our lives and the life of this new baby.

Picasa (aka Google is my Master now)

2008-04-06T22:27:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share a few new pictures. And you can see more here.

This is my sweet beardie girl, Sabaku, enjoying her salad.

Here is Max, getting ready for his first belt test. We finally convinced him to put up his hair because it probably wasn't the best thing to have to push his hair back from his face while doing his forms in the test.

Here he is not long after his test. He wasn't going to find out for sure if he passed or not until today (he did, since he didn't receive a call otherwise). The first thing he did when he came to us after his test was take down his hair and hand me the hair tie.

Ok, so I've run up against the 200 picture limit in my free Flickr account. I would love to give them money to give me more room, but I just cannot justify it right now, and really, my husband would certainly be the one to get a paid account first. He uses it a ton for his art and such.
Well, someone's got a birthday in a couple of months, so that might work...

Anyway, as I get totally off track again. I use Picasa already, which is Google's photo application. It make uploading photos and such very easy, and it's great for minor photo editing.
Google does have a web album thing, and I just uploaded to it, because doing so from Picasa on my computer is stupid easy and I don't have to search at all, etc. It is wonderful. I wish I could upload to Flickr with that sort of ease, though...

I guess I can only hope for the next giant buyout from Google to go to Flickr. Ha... Who owns Flickr anyway? Isn't it Yahoo? I think it may be. I don't care enough right now to find out.

Wow, this ended up rambly (Baby stuff stuff)

2008-04-06T16:57:00.000-07:00

So, this is baby #3 for me, but baby #1 for my husband, and there is a big gap in there between my youngest and this one. So this means that I no longer had any baby stuff left over. I really didn't think I would have any more and didn't want to hold on to all of that stuff even if I eventually did.

Starting out with absolutely nothing for a baby I have managed to amass a giant pile of stuff already (FREE! mostly). And I still need to pick up the crib and a few various other things people have for me. Another friend randomly texted me the other day saying she had a bunch of girl clothes for me, too.

I am planning on having at least one shower and one blessingway, based on friends who have asked to throw these. I don't mind at all, though I am trying to figure out the best way to make sure that anyone who will attend these events knows that "reduce, reuse, recycle" is really our thing. I don't anyone to feel obligated to bring a gift, though it's generally a given for showers, but I do want to let people know that if they would like to gift us with something what types of things would be really useful.

I registered at babiesrus.com and I think I can put a note on my registry. I'm not sure how long it can be, though, right now it just says "it's a girl"

I don't know, I always hate the idea of those cards you stick in invites letting people know where you are registered.

I was thinking of maybe having my hostess make cards to add into the invites that says something like "Gently used or thrifted clothing and blankets, chlorine free disposables and BPA free bottles, Similac Organic, or a yummy meal for the new parents freezer are all very welcome gifts. If you are stuck for ideas you can also visit the registry at babiesrus.com"

Ugh, I don't know. I don't want to sound pushy, either. But I really don't want to end up with things like bottles or diapers that are not the types I plan to exclusively use. I do feel strongly about only using certain types of items for health and environmental reasons.

My first choice is hand me downs, in order to make less of an impact in the use of materials and pollutants, the exceptions to this being bottles that are not BPA free and plastic toys, I really don't want plastic toys that will be chewed on, unless I know the grade and manufacturer. The things that can't be gotten used, like the diapers, I feel strongly about adding as little waste as I can (ha, of course, not doing cloth that I wash myself this time is kind of the antithesis of this, no?)

I don't know, I have this weird feeling about having a shower or 3 this time around (mom friends from my original AP playgroup that I've know since Max was born is doing the blessingway thing during a weekend getaway that us moms are having this summer with the kids) (a couple's thing with my friends from our day to day group of good friends that my goodest friend wants to throw) (possibly a separate for family, I generally think a family one is good separated, I would like to have a small traditional girl kind with Chris' step-mother and her mother, his step-sister, etc, and invite my mother to this one... ugh, that stresses me out to even think about, yeah, better separate)... But I've always been this way. AND heck, I had a wedding shower for my 2nd marriage (my first actual wedding, though)

But I think if I can get our message across on what we need and would like then I don't feel like anyone would be put out and it will give everyone a lot of flexibility in finding us something without feeling pressured to spend a lot of money.

I have a couple of things on the registry like the car seat and stroller that are a little more, but we have the initial stuff we need already so it's not a big deal if we don't have it when the baby is born. Those things are for the benefit of specific family members that I know all too well to have money they would like to spend on this baby and by all means if they're going to do it anyway I figured I would give them something to get :p

I know people will get what they get anyway, but I just want to gently nudge people in our preferred direction.

Thoughts? How would you do this?

Tag, I'm it!!

2008-04-03T20:26:00.000-07:00

Pianomomsicle tagged me for this, and made me feel all special! Being new to the blogging world and still kinda quiet about it, this is a fun first for me!

The Rules:

1. Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Random and weird things about me:

1. I do not shower every day. Rarely every other day. Unless I am out in the dirt I don't see the point. I have even been known to shower only once a week or if I am starting to smell, but I usually shower about twice a week now. As long as my body and clothes are clean, I am fine. Though now the weather is getting warmer, which will soon mean every day. Ugh, I hate humidity.

2. I have a completely inappropriate sense of humor about a lot of things. I think I get it from my dad's family. During my grandmother's rosary/wake all of my dad's brothers and sisters were trying not to laugh and appeared to be crying as they were trying desperately not to start laughing out loud. None of them could make eye contact with each other. :p

3. I love getting catalogs in the mail. I used to love getting them for nearly anything, even with no intention of ever purchasing from them, but I have cut WAY back on my catalog addiction due to concerns about paper overconsumption.

4. My animals, and anyone's animals, are an endless source of entertainment to me. This is why I think I would be very well suited to work in vet medicine when I am ready to go back to work. I really have a deep abiding love of animals. The wonder at them never wears off for me.

5. I do not listen to commercial radio, and if I could have NRP talk radio 24/7 I would. Which actually I can once I get my ipod working and I can get podcasts of all the shows to my heart's content!! Car Talk! This American Life! Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!!

6. #5 reminded me that Stuff White People Like makes me a little embarrassed... I probably fall into a good half of their items listed...

7. So, since I've been care giving for an elderly woman, I have kind of gotten a little addicted to As the World Turns.... *looks down at shoes and coughs uncomfortably*

Well, I don't have many people to tag, cause I haven't really gotten to know any of the peeps I follow. I will tag my friend Brandy over at I Didn't Start Out Tired.
Honestly, that's about it... Sorry for failing on the 7. I could ping lj friends, but I have kinda stopped looking at lj in recent months, due to my rss feeds! I wish everyone would do this, and use google reader. I love being able to share with my friends on google reader.

Bird, Food, TF movement

2008-04-01T22:10:00.000-07:00

So, the lovely little lutino cockatiel that you see in my profile picture is going to be reunited with his original flock. I thought I would be able to get him to get used to me, hand tame him, etc. Hahaha. No such luck. And I worked with him extensively on his screaming. While it is better, it is not enough for impending baby ears. So, when my friend comes back this direction, he will be able to go home with her and be reunited with his true love, who has taken to trying to peck out eyeballs of anyone who crosses her. Silly chickens.

I just had a bowl of one of my most favorite foods in the world. It brings back memories of childhood and it is so delicious. What is it? Cream of Wheat. Yup. I love it. With a big glob of butter and salt. Mmmm. I don't know if I've had it since our honeymoon. The B&B we stayed at in New Orleans let me have it every morning for breakfast while I was there. With pan gravy. Not the thick kind, but the thin kind that seems to only exist in my home state of Louisiana. The cook made it with the drippings from the sausage, but it was never greasy, just perfect.

I've spent a lot of time this evening on the mothering.com boards, and the "Traditional Foods" movement has caught my eye. I didn't realize this was it's own thing. It's interesting, but kind of weird. Well, not weird. I can't think of a more accurate term right now, though.

And every time I see the Weston A. Price name, I think of Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, cause I am a geek that way. And it makes me want to watch more Angel. I still haven't finished it. I can't even remember which season we're actually on. I remember where we are, though. The guy, what's his face, that stole Angel's son, just had the woman kill him and set it up to look like a vamp did it for Angel's son to find... It's been a few months since I've watched it.

And here are some really cool sea creatures found off of the Antarctic coast!

Tangential fun! Here's a pictoral breakdown of this evenings post:

Posts from other blogs

2008-03-31T08:39:00.000-07:00

I've decided to do one of those posts where I post a list and link to various posts on other blogs that I have found interesting lately for various reasons.

Stop The Ride has a great post on Meal Planning without a Menu. I completely agree with her. On occasion I may actually plan a new recipe I want to try, but mostly I just keep our basics on hand. Our most common dinner to throw together, as I have mentioned before, it red or green curry.

TreeHugger had a fantastic post on How to Green Your Funeral. This is something I have been concerned with since I did tons of research into modern funeral practices when I was considering a career in mortuary work. I am not a fan of the common US way of funerals. Not only for the environmental impact, but also because of the way it distances us from the natural cycle of life and death.

Straight from the Farm has a recipe posted for Spiced Green Tea and White Chocolate Ice Cream that looks incredible! I plan to procure an ice cream maker for the warm months this year, I have wanted one for years.

That ice cream looks like it would be the perfect follow up to Kalofagas' Thai Green Curry with Scallops and Shrimp. I love scallops, they are my favorite shellfish.

Be Thrifty Like Us has a great post on Saving on Baby Expenses. I have managed to get a TON of baby clothes and furniture and "gear" for free, from friends and others. The only major expense at this point for us will be a crib mattress, since I do want one new. This post deals with the other types of expenses, like diapers and formula, which is where the consistant out of pocket expenses come from. With my previous two, I did cloth diapers and breastfed exclusively, so those weren't anything I had to pay for. But this time, it will have to be formula, and I'm not doing cloth without a washer and dryer because I know my limitations. So having this information is invaluable!

Tiny Choices had a recent post on Community Supported Agriculture, which is an important subject to me, and I hope to you, too.

How to Kill A Chocolate Bunny from Accidental Hedonist just amuses me!

TreeHugger has a post on a builder in Huntsville, TX who is Building Affordable Homes Out of Discarded Materials.

That's all I have time for right now, folks. Enjoy!

Farewell, My Subaru

2008-03-25T09:07:00.000-07:00

Doug Fine, a contributor and journalist for NPR, has taken on the adventure of sustainable living. How? Watch this video that was featured on Boing Boing last week.

I so enjoyed this video and my husband thought it interesting as well, so I stopped out the next day and bought the book on the day it was released. The book is called Farewell My Subaru.

I am not quite done with it, I keep trying to catch up on my RSS feeds, and falling asleep in front of my laptop rather than reading in bed this week. But I have read most of it, and have really enjoyed it. It makes a nice break from The Omnivore's Dilemma.

I will have more on it when I finish it.

2008-03-23T21:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I made it out to Bayou City Farmer's Market, and I am so happy with my purchases!

Strawberries, of course, cause if they're in season and available I will be all over that.
Eggs, including Araucana eggs in a delightful shade of green.
Fresh goat cheese, that is magical.
A lavender bath bomb, mmmm....
Lavender lip balm
Olive Bread
A Knife!!!!!

The more into The Omnivore's Dilemma I get, the more concerned I become about where my food is coming from. Wow. The evolution of CAFO's based on governmental decisions regarding the surplus of corn is fascinating, and revolting.
I love Michael Pollan's way of approaching the subject, without any type of sensationalism. Instead he approaches it with a factual and well researched representation of the realities of the food we eat based on history and policies that have created this bizarre chain of events leading to industrialized food.
I am not even half way through, but I would already highly recommend this book. I'll let you know if I change my mind at any point.

Easter Lunch

2008-03-23T21:11:00.000-07:00

I offered to make Easter dinner for my in laws for Easter, since we didn't have any plans, my step mother in law hates cooking with a fiery passion, and I actually enjoy it. We went over there since have more space for people and such, so I did my cooking over there, bringing what I needed with me.

I have been just so worn out this week with keeping busy with fun things with the kids and dividing cells, so I wanted an easy stress free menu, and I totally succeeded. I am quite pleased and would like to share what I made to feed 10 people that took me only two hours and didn't stress me out at all:

Spiral Sliced Ham
Au Gratin Potatoes
Sauteed Asparagus
Spinach Strawberry Salad
Rolls
Deviled Eggs (of course)
Chocolate Pie

Spiral Sliced Ham
For the ham, I got the Kroger spiral sliced fully cooked ham. I love this stuff! We didn't even heat it with the glaze today, just plain and it was wonderful. It's only $1.69/lb with the card, which is a great deal. My step mother in law usually buys the Honeybaked Ham Co stuff for $50-60 for a ham, and she preferred this ham over those.

Creamy Au Gratin Potatoes from All Recipes
Prepared for 10 servings

10 russet potatoes, sliced into 1/4 inch slices
3 onion, sliced into rings
salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup and 2 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup and 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1-1/4 teaspoons salt
5 cups milk
3-3/4 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Butter a 1 quart casserole dish.
Layer 1/2 of the potatoes into bottom of the prepared casserole dish. Top with the onion slices, and add the remaining potatoes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
In a medium-size saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Mix in the flour and salt, and stir constantly with a whisk for one minute. Stir in milk. Cook until mixture has thickened. Stir in cheese all at once, and continue stirring until melted, about 30 to 60 seconds. Pour cheese over the potatoes, and cover the dish with aluminum foil.
Bake 1 1/2 hours in the preheated oven.

I diced my onion and only used 2, and I took the foil off of the potatoes for the last 20 minutes or so of baking to let it brown on top. This made a large amount and was cooked in two casserole dishes.

Sauteed Asparagus
I just cut 2 lbs asparagus into two inch pieces and sauteed in about 2 TB of butter with 3 cloves minced garlic and salt and pepper (I would have used Olive Oil, but they didn't have any)

Spinach Strawberry Salad from cooks.com

1 lb. fresh spinach, washed & dried
1 pt. strawberries, washed & halved
1/2 c. pecan halves, toasted

Dressing

1/3 c. raspberry vinegar
1 tsp. dry mustard
1 tsp. salt
1/2 c. sugar
1 c. vegetable or olive oil
1 1/2 tbsp. poppy seeds

Combine dressing ingredients except the poppy seeds in a blender. Add the poppy seeds by hand. Toss dressing with spinach, strawberries and hot pecans. The hot nuts will slightly wilt the greens.

Oh goodness, this salad was GOOOOOOD!

Hope you all had a good Easter day!

Livestock Show & Spring Break

2008-03-19T21:59:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a hectic week so far. The boys and I have been going non stop!

Today we spent the day at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, sans the actual rodeo part.
I love farm animals, and the highlight of the day for all of us I think was the petting area. The baby goats! Oh goodness. I wanted to smuggle one out with me under my shirt. Some were no bigger than an average size cat, I could have done it!
We went today since DH was off of work and could come, too, and it was great. But goodness, we spent a LOT of money. Those carnival rides are so expensive!

But back the animal part of things, that was wonderful.
Just reinforcing my desire to move out of the city and have goats and chickens. And slowly breaking down my dh's reservations. No way could he deny how adorable those goats were. And the wee tiny cow. Heck, there was even a wallaby!
You can see more pictures here.

For my birthday my dear husband got me a copy of Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, which I have been trying to read in my few spare moments, with the kids being off of school this week. The evolution of corn into a commodity from a crop is fascinating, and I am really enjoying this book so far.

Many of my friends have defected to Austin for spring break with their kids, if they haven't already moved there altogether. I really like Austin, but it would be so hard for me to leave Houston. I never thought I would really think of Houston as home, but it really has become home for me. Even though it's ugly and dirty, and a non-driver's nightmare, this is the place I see myself for a long time. Unless everyone I know eventually ends up in Austin, then I guess we'll see.

More recipes to come soon, I made a nummy spinach artichoke dip the other night, and a really great smoothie.

Baby Update!

2008-03-12T18:48:00.000-07:00

I am so happy! The baby is doing well and guess what!! I'll give you a clue:

Hee hee! It's a GIRL, if you can't figure out what that blob up there might be! (Feet legs and booty!)

There she is!

She says hello!

Zelda!

2008-03-09T18:53:00.000-07:00

So, as you may know, if you read the previous post about Zelda, Max loves it. My husband did this for him today:

Adorable!!!

Long Day, Busy Week

2008-03-08T22:19:00.000-08:00

This past week went by really quickly! I'm not even sure where it all went. It felt busy, though.

So, this week I made a few recipes from different blogs and they were wonderful!

First I made made this Smoky Refried Bean Soup and it was wonderful. The only things I did differently was I left out the green pepper, I didn't have any and I am not thrilled about them cooked. I love them raw, though. And then I substituted a chipotle in adobo for the chili powder, hot sauce and paprika. For the tomatoes called for in the recipe I used the Muir Glen Organic's Fire Roasted Tomatoes. Between those and the chipotle and adobo sauce, it had a great smoky flavor. It also had the perfect amount of spice to it. It was super simple to make, too.

Another thing I made were these Banana Cookies. OH, they were good! They were like banana nut bread in a cookie. YUM! I didn't add the clove to the recipe, and I'm not sure I will in the future.

In my veggie box this week I got 4 heads of wonderful red and green leaf lettuce, a huge bunch of cilantro, 4 smallish onions with green parts, one bunch of bright lights swiss chard, and one bunch of beets with greens. I think that was it. It was all gorgeous and the other night I made an awesome salad that went a little like this:

Wash and dry green and red lettuce, tear into pieces.
Dry roast half a cup of pecan halves until fragrant, toss them onto the lettuce.
Cut 1 1/2 navel oranges into segments and add to the salad.
Squeeze the 2nd half of the left over orange over the salad.
Add a large handful of cilantro very finely chopped to salad over oranges.
Add as much fresh goat cheese, crumbled (the best you can with goat cheese), onto the salad as you like.
Squeeze a lime over, add fresh black pepper.

That was a mighty fine salad. The only thing I lamented not having on hand was a red onion. I would have taken a quarter of it or so, finely chopped it and added that as well.

Today was a TaeKwonDo class and clinic for the oldest. The clinic was board breaking. He broke his first 3 boards ever, and was THRILLED with this, as you can imagine an 8 year old to be! I was so proud of him, he loves this sport and is so into it.
He used hands and elbows to break the first 2, then the 3rd, he decided to do a kick. The board broke into 3 and the 3rd piece flew way over the instructor's head. No one else's board did that, so of course that was a big deal, too.

Unfortunately, due to an accident on the interstate on our way to get there, we didn't have time stop and pick up a new digital camera before this. ARGH. That was very disappointing. We did get a new one afterwards, though, so I'll have new pictures to be posting again soon.

We ended up getting another Canon Powershot, which is what our last one was, and it was a great camera. It suffered an unfortunate fall several months ago, but in the 2 years we'd had it, we never had an issue with it, other than it's lack of indestructibility. ;)
The new one is a much improved 8MP, with a 4x zoom, and it was a very reasonable price. It's amazing how much things change in just two years' time regarding technology.

I have so many things I would like to post about, but I have been so tired by the time I get to sit in front of my computer in the evenings that I only manage to make it maybe halfway through my blog feeds before I just crash. I haven't had much energy for posting!

And now, the RIAA is stealing my sleep (heh), and I have to do that whole coffee demo thing in the morning at what will actually be 9 to my poor brain instead of 10 like it should be!

Also, it's still cold. WTF? It's over a week into March! I'm in Texas! It's supposed to be pushing 80 on a regular basis at this point. I am not ok with this weather thing, and I would like to call for a moratorium on all of this unseasonably cold weather.

I think I may need some sleep!

Phew! I'm tired!

2008-03-05T09:30:00.001-08:00

After only 4 hours of sleep and several hours of running, I am TIRED!

But, today is a beautiful day, and the kitty is at the vet being spayed, my veggies are picked up from the co-op, and it is a dear beautiful, fellow Piscean mama friends birthday today, so I got to see her and other friends this morning to celebrate.

I will post more about what was in my all local organic box of goodies later, but for now, just know it all looks gorgeous!

And this weekend, said birthday mama friend's son is having his birthday party at The Last Organic Outpost. I just found out it will be a chicken coop raising party! SWEET! I love chickens! I want to get involved in the caring of the chickens. I can't have my own right now, so maybe I can at least care for the little buggers over there.

More about veggies and chickens and recipes later, I have a lot I want to post on, but I need to head in to my caretaking gig for a little while, at least.

TEXAS! Yes, YOU!

2008-03-03T16:15:00.000-08:00

The primaries are tomorrow!

If you are an eligible voter, GET OUT THERE AND VOTE!!!! If you have already done early voting, go you! BUT STILL GET TO THE CAUCUS, all you dems! Remember, voting in Texas is not enough! YOU MUST show back up to your polling place at appx 6:45 and get your vote in for the caucus.
As a TX Dem you get to vote twice. MAKE IT COUNT!

I am so excited about this. Tomorrow night will be spent with friends watching the results rolling in. GAH! Nail Biting Excitement!

Now, I don't care who you are supporting, make sure you do your part in all of this. Your vote really does make a difference!

Of course, we all know who I'm voting for!

Oh! One more thing!

2008-03-02T21:01:00.000-08:00

I just want to toot my own horn and say I have finally completely done away with plastic grocery bags! I have enough reusable bags that I have managed to remember on each shopping trip for several days now.

Now, next on my list is to purchase some of those tulle/mesh produce bags I saw on Etsy so that I can do away with those produce plastic bags, too.

So go me! It is a "tiny choice" that I have made, and I am pleased.

Damn, I make yummy food

2008-03-02T20:35:00.000-08:00

So, I made the "winter pesto" I posted the recipe to previously. YUM! It alone is excellent.

But it doesn't stop there! What I did for dinner tonight was take leftover pork loin from last night and cut into 3/4" slices, put it in the skillet to warm it through and brown the slices a little, then put a dollop of the pesto onto each piece. Then I flipped the pesto side down onto the hot skillet for just maybe 15 seconds and then removed the slices and pesto onto my cutting board. I sliced the pork up into bite sized pieces, tossed it into two bowls of spring greens and baby spinach, added some sliced roma tomatoes, some black pepper and a just a little splash of rice wine vinegar (I thought balsamic or red sounded too heavy for this) and tossed.

Ohhhhh. That was so yummy, the husband loved it and now he said he loves me more than he did before ;)

It was wonderful, and I highly recommend that pesto. It is not overwhelmingly cilantro flavored, and the pecans are very nice.

Tomorrow night I plan to take the goat cheese I have and make it into croquette shapes, and press into the pesto, with maybe some additional pecans, then I will grill that on each side in the skillet and serve on a bed of greens and tomatoes, probably with some red onion (if I remember to pick one up) and possibly even a citrus fruit of some type or mango.
There is an amazing ceviche salad that Chris and I love at this restaurant we go to with his father. It has a disc of goat cheese covered in pine nuts seared on top of the ceviche and greens, with a mango salsa. That's where I got my idea for the goat cheese and pesto thing. I think it will be nummy.

Forays into Container Gardening

2008-03-01T21:41:00.000-08:00

So, last week I got a cherry tomato plant, basil, rosemary, and a small Japanese type eggplant, all good for container gardening. They are all doing well, and I even have a tiny tomato on my plant! Today I planted seeds for green onions and cilantro, and I have seeds starting inside for parsley and spearmint. I've never managed to keep basil or rosemary alive before, but so far so good.

I need to find more containers for planting, and I need to find a place with optimal sun for the tomato and eggplant, especially. I also have a bush cucumber to start, and some catnip and a few other seeds.

I think I need to build a shelf on the back porch to raise the plants to get more sun. I could even move the plants to the front if I needed to, but I like to have them where I can keep an eye on them. I don't trust those guys that come through here every week with the leaf blowers.

I think if I manage a successful container garden for a few seasons, I will feel more confident about regular gardening in the future.

I wish, I wish, I wish we could just get a few acres of land right now and I could start my larger garden and goats and chickens, but starting on a smaller scale is probably for the best.

Sharon at Casaubon's Book made a post yesterday about dealing with her 2 year old toddler and 8 year old autistic child in the running of a household, gardening, farming, canning, etc, and the trials that go along with it. It reminds me that sure, at this point the kids are at an age where everything is relatively calm and I can get as much done as I need on any given task, but come the end of the summer this is going to change again in a major way. Having a new baby means a few years of constant struggle to get things done and it's probably ok that we don't have the money or credit yet to pursue the land and farming, etc. A few years from now will probably be a better time to jump into that anyway.

I will continue to live in my nice all bills paid urban apartment for now and be happy with what I can grow in pots.

How much Zelda is an Awesome Game

2008-03-01T20:02:00.000-08:00

(Title of this post brought to you by Max)

Max has implored me to write a post about the video game Zelda. Starting out in it's original for the original Nintendo system, and moving through to the N64, Gamecube, and now Wii, Zelda is one of the most long lived and popular series out there.

Max is playing through The Ocarina of Time now, which was originally an N64 game. Remember my post from a few weekends ago about the Vita Mix and the game that was bought instead of a Wii? That was a Zelda collection that includes the first 2 games (which Max does not like or understand in all of it's 2d glory) and Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. We have the Windwaker and Twilight Princess at home and have for a while, so Max and Chris have played through those already. The cool thing is that even though Ocarina is technically an older game, it's still tons of fun and doesn't really seem all that dated. Sure the graphics are the best, but they aren't awful, and the Zelda games are always fun.

The only thing about the game is that Max is terrified of the Zombies that scream and paralyze you! (Max, who is reading and making suggestions on this blog post, said that he thought that should be an exclamation point) They are very slow and easy to get away from, but the weird screaming and being stuck in place really freaks Max out. I had to play through the part of the Hyrule Family Tomb earlier for him cause he knew there would be the zombies.

Max would like me to also link to a t-shirt that he would really like: Triforce T-Shirt

Another post later or tomorrow.

"Winter" Pesto

2008-02-27T19:50:00.000-08:00

I know I have already sung the praises of Costco, but I'm going to do it again right now:

Wow! They have amazing produce, a lot of organic stuff, and wonderful natural foods. I am telling you, this is the best $50 for the membership I have spent! We got a 19 lb. box of YUMMY navel oranges and have been addicted to "orange julius" drinks courtesy of my Vita-Mix. And also, a huge bag of shelled pecans for a very reasonable price. And a liter of organic cold pressed extra virgin olive oil for like, $8.

So, I actually managed to get my butt down to Central City Co-op today and I ordered a box of all locally grown organic produce for next week and did a little bit of shopping while I was there. I got local honey, a few lemons (not local), some local beets, local kale, and local cilantro. I have plans for that cilantro!

I plan to make this Winter Pesto recipe that I found on Karina-s Kitchen: Recipes from a [Gluten-Free] Goddess 's blog.

2 cups, washed, loosely packed stemmed cilantro
2/3 cup shelled pecans
1-2 cloves fresh garlic
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 to 1/2 cup good tasting extra virgin olive oil, as needed
Sea salt, to taste

Combine the cilantro, pecans, garlic and dried basil in a food processor and process until it turns into a coarse meal. Slowly add extra virgin olive oil and process until it becomes a smooth, light paste. Add enough olive oil to keep it moist and spreadable. Season with sea salt, to taste.

Cover and store chilled for at least an hour to saturate the flavors. I like to pour a thin layer of extra virgin olive oil over the top to help keep it bright green.

Makes roughly a rounded cup.

Om Nom Nom Nom! I will let you know how it turns out.

Baby stuff

2008-02-27T19:42:00.000-08:00

So I went to see an new ob/gyn yesterday and I really liked her. She is at Memorial SW where my other gyn is, the one who stopped doing ob work last year. The new doc said she has been sent several of my other gyn's ob patients and knows her, so that's a good sign, too.

I still have mixed feelings about a hospital birth, but my new doc seems to be really receptive to the way I feel about my birthing experience and said that the nurses there are also very good and let you labor in whatever way you like, walking around, they have rocking chairs, etc. They have wireless monitoring, so that makes it easy.

One thing my ob is firm on is having an iv in just in case they need to put something in quickly, which I understand completely. As long as they don't force something on me like in my first AWFUL experience, the one that has really made me wary of hospitals in general.

Also, I will be going for one of those "4d" ultrasounds in a couple of weeks. That is so weird to think that we'll be actually SEEING the baby.

The kids are having a really hard time with the idea of the new baby on the way... That's a post for another time, one I don't have energy for right now. I just hope we'll be able to work through this.

Since I cannot travel to the Pac NW this summer, as is our regular summer vacation, some of my friends and I are renting cottages in Rockport, TX and will be spending a few days on the beach with the kids, sans spouses or partners. I cannot wait. I will be 8.5 months pregnant, but I'm sure it will be awesome.

Baby "Gear"

2008-02-24T23:28:00.000-08:00

Ugh. I hate the term "baby gear". In this consumer driven land we call the US, "baby gear" is a multi billion dollar business each year. Why? Cause people are suckers. And "stuff" is equated with being a better parent, person, businessman, etc.

Do you need all this crap to care for a baby? NO! The first time around we had the whole beautiful crib with this amazing bedding, and everything matched, blah blah blah. And you know what we used it for? To hold clean laundry! And you know what we used the playpen for? More laundry. I put Max in his crib exactly once. He woke up, I put him in his carseat where he slept fine for the remainder of his nap, the end. We co-slept anyway.

But basically what I learned in having the first 2 was that all of that stuff I really thought I needed ended up being useless. Or at the very least a silly expenditure that could have been much less pricey in the first place.

At this point, I know what is useful and what is not. What is nice to have but not necessary. And you know, I do plan to have a baby shower since it has been so long since I've had a baby and I do not have anything left over from my older childrens' younger days. And I am going to have a registry available, but you know what? I am going to BEG everyone to try to find things like blankets, clothes, Boppy pillow, slings, etc, 2nd hand! And ask my friends to generally keep an ear out for used cribs and various related accoutrements.

Baby gear is 99% useless and it takes up space! No good reason for it all.

There are, of course, the things that are not necessary but awfully nice, like an Excersaucer. And I know these can be found in good shape used.

And of course, I do find certain items that make me go *SQUEE!* and that I would like. I am not a total monster :)

In particular, I am questing for a certain blanket that I saw in a picture of Cory Doctorow and his partner Alice's new baby girl that I MUST HAVE! Yes, a $70 baby blanket that makes me froth at the mouth with desire.

I am not immune. Sigh...

A Thought on Nader

2008-02-24T22:34:00.000-08:00

"Ralph Nader has jumped the shark, big time and is now entering the forest of irrelevance in the Lyndon Larouche Wilderness Preserve."

Bwahahaha!!! Oh goodness. That might just be about the funniest thing I have ever read. It was posted by commenter Malixe over on Kung Fu Monkey's blog in the post "Vote the Goddam Issues, or I Will Release the Robot Bees Prematurely"

And wow. Nader. I supported him once. I voted for him. He really has outlived his relevance within the US political system and now he's just starting to piss me off. I cannot believe him. Really.

And oh, Obama, how I adore thee. Just sayin'

Food

2008-02-22T20:50:00.000-08:00

I love food. I love fresh, simple, whole foods. Right now I am cooking a lentil soup that I was inspired to make after reading the "No Croutons Required" recipe fest over at Lisa's Vegetarian Kitchen blog.

In my opinion, food should be made with whole ingredients, and the more simple, the better. One of our household staples is green or red curry, made with either tofu or chicken breast. It is fast, simple, and so yummy.

I have also fallen in love with my new blender I am looking forward to a trip to Costco tomorrow to restock my veggies and fruit.
I have been eating a lot of fresh veggies and fruit, mostly raw. It is so satisfying and simple to just throw together a salad of a romaine heart with whatever other veggies I have around and some rice vinegar.

I saw a short piece from Michael Pollan speaking the other day, and he is so right about food needing to be real. I am also so happy to see the food politics in the blogs that I read to be taking such a large portion of what many folks are finding important.

Food is just so much better when it is fresh and whole. I feel better physically and mentally, I enjoy feeding healthy food I feel good about to my family.

Of course, this is certainly not to say we've made it past the fishsticks, frozen fries, and mac & cheese days altogether, or that sometimes Stovetop Stuffing isn't just about the best darn thing.

It's just to say that for the most part, I want to cook and eat things that make me feel good all around.

One of the many reasons my kids are awesome

2008-02-18T23:41:00.000-08:00

There are tons of things that are priorities for my family and never nearly enough money to go around. I don’t usually spend a lot of money on anything out of the realm of what we need. Especially not big ticket items.

Of course, a Nintendo Wii isn’t at all a necessary item, but something that we thought we would get good use out of and be fun for the whole family. We knew better than to try to find one around the holidays, so we had waited till after the holidays. It was something we had planned to purchase for quite a while since playing on a friend’s while visiting for a few days. The husband and I had a ridiculous amount of fun with that thing.

So Saturday, before the bad weather was supposed to hit we went out to see if we could possibly find a Wii. First we went to Game Stop, and they were out. Max found a Zelda collection game for the Gamecube we currently own that he really wanted, so we told him that if we couldn’t find a Wii then he could get it, since Miles didn’t have any objections. Next we went to Best Buy, all out of Wiis. So across the parking lot to Costco.

I’d had a Sam’s membership for years, and never really liked it all that much, but it did come in useful on occasion. I decided that I wanted to try out Costco this time, and stop giving even more of my money to Wal-Mart. WOW! Costco is awesome! They have a lot of natural foods, and their produce section is WONDERFUL. I’ve only had a membership for about a week and a half and I have done more shopping there than I did at Sam’s in the last year.

So anyway, while we were there checking to see if they had Wiis (No), I wanted to grab a few veggies. On our way to the back, we saw that the Vita-Mix show was still there. The guy had been there the previous weekend and I was very sad about my (haha, only at at my husband’s insistence) practicality winning out over my many long years coveted Vita-Mix blender. Instead we went to Ikea and bought the kids’ bed we had been wanting/needing to get for a year.

So, back to Saturday at Costco, and the guy with the well practiced schtick for one of my all time favorite products EVER. He starts a demo and the kids beg to watch (I wanted to bypass because I didn’t want to once again be tempted by this $400 amazing piece of machinery), but what the heck, free smoothies for the kids! So we watched. And the kids were in love with this machine. They were telling me that we should get one. I told them I really wanted one, and maybe one day, but that they were really pricey.

And you know what my AWESOME, AMAZING children did then? They said they didn’t care about a Wii at all if it meant that we could get a Vita-Mix blender…

So Saturday evening was spent at home with the kids playing Zelda and watching Stardust, while the kids tried many new smoothies and “ice creams” made with our (MY!!) new Vita-Mix 5200!

I am ridiculously happy with this purchase. I made dinner with it tonight (black bean/tortilla soup in a couple of minutes) and I’m now drinking my green smoothie.
There will be posts in the future about my blender. The husband still cannot believe we bought a $400 appliance, but he’s happy with it, too.

I had also wanted a Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer for a long time, and was actually given the money for one on my last birthday by my step-mother-in-law. She said she really hoped I would get one but understood if I didn’t and pay other more pressing bills, which of course is what happened.

Since then I have done a lot of thinking about that particular appliance and realized I probably would not use it very often. So, if I think about this as my birthday present from her for last year and my husband’s birthday present to me this year, I don’t feel quite so guilty. And I do think that this particular item will have a huge impact on our health and eating habits. And with a 7 year warranty and excellent customer service, I can really be certain that my investment is worth it.

My kids are so awesome. They are so excited about this blender and have told everyone we see about it. They honestly could care less about the Wii, I think Chris and I wanted it more than they did.

Now this is even more motivation to get back in with my local CSA, Central City Co-op.

A Strange Feeling

2008-02-14T23:55:00.000-08:00

When I went to see my psychiatrist last week, I went ahead and asked about my medications and what that will mean after the baby is born. (We covered the initial "How are you?" and had moved on to politics already, so I figured I could ask about this even though it's still a while away. I LOVE my doctor, as an aside. He and I agree on politics 100% and he is great to talk to)

Ok, a little backstory on me and my mental illness: I have Bipolar Disorder, and looking back can see a long history of this affecting my life long before I managed to get diagnosed. I have only been medicated for about 2.5 years now, and the radical difference medication has had in my life is amazing.
After my 2nd son was born, I also had severe undiagnosed PPD on top of the bipolar which made mothering 2 small children in a miserable marriage and complete isolation a very bad time for me.
This is why I do not now have primary custody of my children. One thing that I do know is that I am, and have always been, an EXCELLENT mother. And I knew even then that I was giving them everything that I could but I was breaking. When I left my marriage and moved out, I still stayed home with the kids every day for 12 hours a day, then made dinner with my ex husband, put the kids to bed, and went home to my own place to get up and do it again the next morning at 6 am. Even though I was no longer living in the same house, I was still there as a stay at home mother.

But after a while, I had to get a job, my soon to be ex husband stopped paying for my living expenses, and I was still severely ill without being able to comprehend what was going on with me. I spent this time in my life just convinced I was a horrible person. It's a post for another time, but being Bipolar without meds is like looking at yourself through a soundproof, one way mirror. You keep yelling and screaming, begging yourself to STOP acting or reacting in a certain way and the other You that everyone else is seeing cannot hear your pleas for sanity. Your own mind is a prison, and it is an awful place to be.

I know I was not as attentive to the kids as I could have been during that time, but I also know that even still, I was there for them and a good mother. During all of this though, the divorce went through, I did not have the means, financially or mentally, to care for my children primarily. I have to live with this now, and it really sucks to have the 55/45% arrangement. But that is not what this post is about. That was just a little background.

Now, onto what this post is ACTUALLY supposed to be about:

I nursed Max for 3.5 years (nursing through my 2nd pregnancy and tandem nursing for a year) and I nursed Miles for 2.5 years.

I am pregnant with my 3rd child (my husband's first) and I will not be nursing this one. The mood stabilizers that I take for my mental illness pass in too great a dosage into breast milk. But me being SANE and healthy mentally to care for a child is FAR more important to me that nursing. But it is such a strange feeling to be looking at this. It is freeing, in a way, which does leave me with some guilt. I am not one who is prone to many feelings of guilt and I'm fairly sure this is just stemming from too many Dr. Sears books early on. (I do like Dr. Sears, not saying I don't, but at this point, I need a bit more balance in my parenting)

I also don't plan to co-sleep this time, either. I do not believe at all in cry it out techniques or anything, but I will be SO GLAD not to have a 3 year old still in bed with me. Isn't it strange how parenting ideals shift over time? With a 6.5 year gap between my last baby and this one, so many of my parenting choices have mellowed. I don't care if the baby cries a little bit if I put her/him down for a minute so I can pee. They will survive!

I also have a tiny bit of guilt at the glee I feel of getting to leave the kid with someone other than me and my boobs for a night out occasionally before the child is walking and talking! My feelings on this are so mixed, I find it amusing.

But I am sure I will get over it! Viva la Boob Freedom this time!

Too Many Thoughts

2008-02-14T23:51:00.000-08:00

I realized that part of my issue with blogging regularly is that I get overwhelmed with all of the things I consider writing about and eventually give up on all of them.

So it ends up, that when I do post, it's babbling and inanity a lot of the time. I am going to start keeping a list of the various topics I would like to cover at some point, and just work my way through. I have one that I will at least start a post for now and add to it until I feel it is done. I admire those bloggers that are able to post long, well thought out, intelligent essays on a regular basis. I would like to be able to do that on an occasional basis at least.

Success (ish)

2008-02-13T22:09:00.000-08:00

So, the husband (mainly, though I did help a little) put together the new bed for the kids from IKEA. But as we started the project of building the bed, we realized that it was not the bunk bed we thought we had bought. It was, instead, the loft bed of a very similar name. We didn't notice the picture being different, especially as the bed rang up for the correct price we expected to pay and was located in the aisle and lot that was indicated upstairs.

So, the kids have a loft bed instead of a bunk, cause we were NOT willing to pack it all back up and return it to IKEA tomorrow, since this project was started about 15 minutes before IKEA closed for today. We figure we can just get a twin box spring and frame for the bottom bed, and call it done.

It all worked out ok, I think. One neat thing is that since it is a loft, when they aren't sharing a room any more then there can always be a seating area or desk underneath later on.

I still have tons to do in the kids' room. We need more storage for their space. We bought a few containers at IKEA this weekend, but we definitely need more. I like each separate thing to have it's own space and there are SO many pieces to everything they have. Legos, K'nex, marble runs, Hotwheels, Playmobil, Pokemon figures. Much of that has it's own container, but it ends up stacked in the closets. So, I also need to get more shelving to put the containers on. Ugh. A lot to think about and do, but I really want to get this project done! I want to take care of their space and make it what we've wanted for a year now before I have to start worrying about the impending new baby.

Also, Miles, my 6 year old, when I asked him about the impending baby (he hasn't talked much about his feelings on having a new sibling in a mixed family, unlike his older brother) he said his main concern is that the baby will die from choking on Legos or some other toy that they have. I assured him that the baby would not be able to get into his toys as long as they were kept in his room and put away when he was done playing when them outside of his room, but also I want to make sure that he really feels like he has control over his environment so he can feel comfortable (of course, there will be their very own baby gate to keep the baby out, etc, but I still want him to feel good about his space).

And then there is the painting the walls in there. Even just to get regular touch up paint from the office for now, since there are so many scuff marks on the wall where the bed has been until now.
We're wanting to do an ocean theme, with cool murals and such. We're really lucky that where we live is so great about anything we want to do in here. That makes apartment living much nicer.

Ok, so I am stalling. I have more time tonight to get a lot more done in the kids' room. Off I go.

Carnitas Update!

2008-02-02T15:43:00.000-08:00

That recipe for carnitas in my last post ROCKS!
I forgot to buy cojita cheese, but mozzarella worked ok, since it was what I had. And I also just used plain whole organic yogurt instead of sour cream. That worked great, too.

I will hopefully have a working camera again soon to take pictures of my food when I make new or interesting things.

This isn't a food blog, specifically, but I love to cook and try new food and recipes, so I'm noticing a trend towards being just a little food centric.

I also made a cheaters chocolate pie with instant pudding with a bit of cream cheese whipped in in a pre-made graham crust.
The littler one thinks it's wrong that I don't have whipped cream for the pie, and would really like me to run to the store for some... I don't think that's a bad idea, but I don't know how motivated I am to actually do that.

MEAT!!

2008-02-01T23:19:00.000-08:00

I am finally able to say that I am on the mend! After over a week of illness kicking my ass, I made it through a whole day without ultimately ending up in the fetal position on the couch, praying for the sweet release of death.
Of course, the oldest kid now has tonsils the size of golf balls that are painful to the touch. If it's not one thing...
I'll see how he's doing tomorrow and see if an urgent care visit is in order. As long as it's not strep, and whatever it is I don't get, we'll be ok.

Anyway, so on the menu for tomorrow: Carnitas!!

I have been wanting deliciously crispy carnitas for a long time now, and I have not been anywhere that serves it in a long time. I have never made this myself, but I found a recipe that looks delicious and I decided I must try it!

The recipe I am using can be found on Simply Recipes here.
I know the younger child will not touch it, but guess what! He can eat mac & cheese or something while the rest of us enjoy our delicious MEAT!

On the subject of MEAT!:

I enjoy meat on occasion, but I have concerns about where it comes from, what's in it, how the animals were treated, etc. Here at Cthez Cthulhu we stick with a mostly veggie diet. And also, for less than $1 a pound you can't beat tofu or dried lentils and beans! And I love me some tofu Thai red curry or red lentil dal for some of the easiest and quickest throw together meals out there.

I have been looking forward to obtaining a copy of Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma for a while now.
I have a lot of thoughts about food and why I choose to eat the way that I do, but while I know I am quite a bit more conscientious about my food than the average American consumer, there is still a lot more that I could stand to learn.
The book I mentioned above seems like one of the good resources out there to look at and think on. It is difficult at times to find a middle ground point of view that covers all sides of the issues of food, rather than the polarizing Meat is Murder vs. Meat & Potatoes at Every Meal attitudes.
This is definitely changing, thanks to the internet and bloggers at the forefront, but it's still a hard subject to find information for all sides on.

Oh, also, for lunch, I treated myself to the most yummy Beef Gai Lan I have ever had. And guess what! There was No MEAT!! That place is the end all of vegetarian restaurants, in my not so humble opinion.
See, now it's getting really late, and the baby has commanded me to finish my leftovers from lunch. Oh well, when the baby demands it there's really no way out of it.

2008-01-30T20:21:00.000-08:00

I have been sick for a week now, and I say this is getting old.
First I had whatever hellish chest plague the husband had, then I got a cold. I hate colds. And they hate me. I especially hate colds when I have already been having sinus issues from hell that go along with the beauty of pregnancy.

Sometimes when I breathe, it's like my chest is experimenting with Tuvan throat singing.

I should be feeling all glowy and lovely and goddess like, dammit. (I know, I know, but still!)

Bok!

2008-01-30T19:13:00.000-08:00

I have decided that one of the breeds of chicken I would like to raise for eggs would be the Araucanas.
"Bok?" you ask.

Well, then, let me tell you!

First of all, they have something called the "Peduncle". Now, how can I not love a breed that had a peduncle from whence ear tufts blossom?
Of course, genetically, you may not always have tufts and other traits specific to the breed, but the eggs will always be blueish or greenish, which I think is neat.

A really great site I found on this breed is here:
Araucanas Online
I love the photos on this site of this breed. There is also a wealth of information about the breed in general.

And speaking of chickens:
Backyard Chickens is one of my favorite places online to lurk around and learn more about keeping chickens and which breeds have the best personalities, etc. I particularly enjoy the forums on that site, where I lurk and read all about adventures with chickens and wait longingly for the day that I will have chickens of my own once more... Sigh.

Congee + Crunchies = Crazy Delicious!

2008-01-27T21:31:00.001-08:00

Oh, I am so full.

I love that stuff so much.

Now the husband just made coffee, and he bought a White Chocolate Macademia creamer...

We rented the first season disc of the series Weeds, which I am looking forward to watching. It's funny, because while I do want to watch it, I have put it off for a couple of days now because I don't want to be disappointed. Isn't that silly? Well, I will suck it up and go watch it. The husband's been patiently waiting (he has the internet to keep him entertained)

Will go explode with foodie goodness now.

Congee for the Soul

2008-01-27T15:38:00.000-08:00

When I find myself eating veggie corndogs and tater tots of my own accord because it's the only thing I can manage, I know things are bad.

I have been sick since Thursday, and it is now Sunday. This is not cool! I have to work tomorrow, as well as get my car registration renewed, things I am not looking forward to!

I have been sleeping copious amounts, drinking absurd amounts of fluids (not so fun when you are already pregnant and having to pee a ton anyway!), and ingesting tons of vitamin C and other good for you items. I still have the funk, and now it is residing in my chest. blech.

Tonight I really want Congee, so my plan is to feel well enough in a few hours to at least boil the damn chicken. My husband can be instructed on the rest when he gets home from work, but I know he won't be able to debone the chicken... (a story for another time)

My Version of Congee:
One whole chicken
tons of garlic cloves (6?)
tons of fresh ginger (1.5"?)

Boil chicken in water to cover with large chunks of ginger and slices of garlic.
When chicken is done, remove from broth and set chicken aside to cool.
You can strain the broth if you feel the need, but I don't.

Simmer broth and add a bit of light soy sauce, a little rice vinegar, a few dashes of sesame oil.
Add a cup to a cup and a half of long grain rice or jasmine rice. Simmer until the rice is cooked and starts to split.
When chicken has cooled, shred meat and add back to soup, discard skin and bones.
Add more soy sauce (I usually add dark soy sauce at the end), rice vinegar, sesame oil, etc, to taste.

Take a few more inches of fresh ginger root, another 6? or more cloves of garlic, a bunch of green onions. Chop these all up to fairly small peices. Coat in corn starch and kosher salt, fry in a small amount of canola oil until browned and crispy. Drain.
Serve soup with a handful of this in each bowl with a a small amount of chopped cilantro.
Serve soup with Rooster sauce (Sriracha).

The rice thickens up the soup, so you can end up with a more porridge like consistency. I love this stuff. I usually make mine a little thinner than a porridge, but you can add more rice to make it thicker.

Here is the Wiki on Congee.

Movies

2008-01-26T22:54:00.000-08:00

I am not a huge movie person. In general they disappoint me and are generally not a good use of my time.
While I do have movies that I like, and some people may not necessarily agree with me on their fabulousness, that is ok, because I still get to like them. The same as you still get to like your movies that I do not understand.

Movies that other people really liked but I didn't:
Cider House Rules - One of the many reasons I generally DO NOT watch movies based on books I love. WHY did this win so many awards?!? It was crap!
Memoirs of a Geisha - See reason above. Not crap, beautiful cinematography, I didn't hate it, but the book was so well written and such a beautiful story to be caught up in, this one was meh.
The LOTR Movies - They were ok once to sit through, but I am done. And the last 20 minutes of the last one was the most absurd thing! I almost left! Hobbits in slow motion tickling each other while jumping on a bed and looking like they are drooling? WTF?!
The Piano - I HATE THIS MOVIE!!! With a FIERY PASSION! It is NOT romantic, it is disturbing and icky!
Blade Runner - Again with the book thing, though it was a short story. I just seem to not like Phillip K. Dick stories as movies. I feel very similarly about
A Scanner Darkly, although that actually stayed very close to the book. I just really didn't like it at all... Except Woody Harrelson and Robert Downey, Jr., they were fabulous. But I just didn't like the translation to the screen, though I doubt a better job could have been done.
Sin City - There, I said it. Great translation to the screen from what it was, but I just didn't like it, at least not enough to sit through it again unless I had to.

I could at this point talk about movies I actually like, or more movies I do not, but I will leave this for now.

Ok, no, I won't. I just started thinking about actors I just simply don't like. Every once in a while I will watch something with these actors if it is supposed to be fanfuckintastic, or my husband talks me into it, but for the most part, I avoid their movies. I hate seeing their faces. Irrational? Yes. Do I care? Hell no!

Hugh Grant - Not adorable, as so many seem to think. Smarmy and cocky and looks like he could use a good pimp slap.
Sandra Bullock - Hate, Hate, Hate. I find her bothersome. A lot.
Winona Ryder - She cannot speak without WHINING. UGH!!!!

I know there are more movies and faces I don't like, as well many that I actually do (No, really!)

But I will leave you with this for now:
http://www.imdb.com/chart/bottom
Voted the worst movies on the IMDb site.

An Experiment in Blogging

2008-01-26T22:36:00.000-08:00

This is not my first foray into the Blogosphere, but maybe I'll manage to stick with it this time?

I admire so many bloggers out there. There are those that make me think, make me laugh, inspire me.

I don't have high expectations for my own blogging, I just decided to try it out, make one last ditch effort of sticking with something (heh).

For this blog, I plan to post many varied things: thoughts, rants, recipes, shiny things, anything else that I can think of to actually put down in words.