Crockpot Happiness

I absolutely love cooking, but I don't have as much time for it as I used to. Since I spend most afternoons and evenings teaching piano and voice lessons, I am always looking for recipes that can be made quickly or in the crockpot, but are still healthy. That isn't easy to find since most quick recipes rely mainly on convenience foods (ie. high fat, high calories and lots of other crud.) Before we had Sam, I used to buy mainly organic and all natural. That isn't always possible now that we live on one income, BUT I still read labels and regulate the amount of chemicals, preservatives and added sugars in our food.
My grandma got me this wonderful crockpot cookbook for Christmas called "Make It Fast, Cook It Slow" by Stephanie O'Dea. You can check out her blog. All of the recipes are inexpensive, healthy and full of fruits and veggies. Last night, I made these chicken tacos and they were wonderful. Pedro and I each ate 4. I threw in diced green peppers and carrots in addition to the traditional taco toppings so I didn't feel so bad eating that many. We both had taco salads for lunch today and I still have enough of the taco meat left over to make Tortilla Soup tonight. Yum!
Right now, I am making homemade yogurt in the crockpot. We all love yogurt in this house. I buy it by the tub because Samson eats it every morning. I've always been intrigued and impressed by people who make their own yogurt, but the process seemed too fussy for me. Making it in the crockpot has been a breeze. I added in a packet of unflavored gelatin at the end to make up for using low-fat milk instead of whole and I think I'll also stir in a packet of vanilla pudding mix. I can't wait to taste it tonight.


P.S. My sweet boy is back to normal today. He took a 3+ hour nap yesterday afternoon and then slept his usual 12 hours last night. I think he was exhausted from the long week of parties and family.

A long-awaited apology I'm sure

Dear Mom,

I am so sorry for all the miserable tantrums I threw as a kid. Like the time I was two and I banged my head against the wall until my nose bled. Or at age 3 when I slammed my bedroom door so hard that the ceiling in your bedroom caved in. (Not something you want to happen in an old victorian house with plaster ceilings....)I am so sorry about all of the times I threw myself on the floor and had a fit in the grocery store or during any shopping excursion. I am sorry for the time Grandpa had to pull the van over and put me out in the snow until I could calm down on a trip home from Florida. My child is now paying me back.....in spades! Today I was reminded of all these incidents as my own child threw food in my face, kicked and hit me, and last but not least, cried himself to sleep in his crib, but not until after he had banged his head on it a couple of times.

I love you Mom!

Chocolate For Breakfast...........

It's about 7:30 am and my son has already had two major tantrums. The first was because he wanted daddy to change his diaper. Sorry dude. Daddy has to finish getting ready for work. The second involved him throwing bread and cheese at me(and hitting me in the face with it I might add)and then smacking me on the back from his high chair as I bent down to pick it up. Again, he wanted daddy to give him breakfast.
Sunday night he had a tantrum so bad during bath time that Pedro told me he was done having kids. Um...sorry honey, I think we're having another boy in about 3.5 months.
Last week the tantrums were non-stop, but I chalked it off to the fact that we were staying at my mom's house and he was in a different environment. We also had a party to go to almost every day and there were tons of people in his face all the time. On Christmas day he screamed for an hour and we thought we might not even make it to my grandparents for Christmas dinner.
I keep meditating on the fruits of the Spirit (Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.) And reminding myself that this too shall pass.

Bilibo

Sam got one of these for Christmas. I had never seen or heard of them before, but I have to say it is pretty cool. I'll have to post some pictures later.

Thankful

I am thankful for a wonderful Christmas with family and friends. Toys are assembled, bags unpacked, laundry done and now I think its time for bed. But first, a picture....or two.....

This Old House

Pedro and I bought our house knowing that it needed a LOT of TLC. (Airplane bathroom anyone?) It's a good starter house and we do love it here, but sometimes we shake our heads and wonder what the heck we were thinking? Last winter we were blessed with a little extra money so we decided to pick something from our long list of house projects. The floors in the kitchen, dining room, living room and entrance seemed like the best choice. Of course, it was the middle of February and everything was covered with snow so we completely forgot about our eyesore of a front yard. We tore it up our first summer here to put in a mandatory city water line. That is a whole other story. Anyways, we installed wood laminate in our living room and tile in the kitchen, dining room and entrance. Here are some before and afters. I think it turned out pretty well and I am super proud of Pedro for all the hard work he put in. He will be the first one to admit that he is no handyman. We couldn't have done it without the help of many friends.

The chipped, dingy, stained slate floor that greeted anyone walking in the front door. My dad couldn't understand why we would EVER get rid of such an expensive floor.

The new wood laminate and our favorite rug.

Putting in the laminate flooring.

It doesn't look too terrible in the picture, but the white carpet was very stained and dingy. It also stunk. We steamed it several times before moving in.

A shot of the carpet and the old vinyl tile linoleum. The glossy finish was almost completely worn off and it was peeling and cracking around our stove and fridge.

Loving the tile.

I actually love our vintage cabinets, but I don't love the mustard yellow sink and gold-flecked countertops.


When we put the tile in, it raised our floors up about a 1/2 inch and as a result the cold air return vent on one of the kitchen walls didn't fit right. Six months later we still haven't bought a new one. And that brings me to the main point of this whole long renovation story. I was making dinner one night in July and Sam was playing with his ball popper. Next thing I know I hear "Uh oh." I turn around to see that he has thrown one of the plastic balls down the cold air return never to be seen again. At the time I remember thinking, "Huh, that could be interesting when we fire up our furnace in the fall." Yep, every morning when our heat kicks in Pedro and I are greeted with the sound of that ball pinging throughout the vents.

Trying really hard......

I know I need to start updating my blog again. It kind of fell apart when the charger for my iBook died. (It was way easier to upload pics in the Mac world. I still can't get used to using Pedro's PC.) And then I got pregnant and Sam stopped taking two naps...but I will try my best to start this thing up again.

Let the Sunshine....

Samson's personality is developing more and more each day. Here are some things I've noticed in the last couple weeks that have made me smile.

1. The only chair he will sit in is his high chair. He prefers to push chairs around rather than sit in them. I usually peek in to the nursery at church at about the time they are doing snacks. All of the other children are sitting at the table eating. Not Sam. He's pushing his chair around the table and occasionally he'll stop and eat.

2. Although he definitely plays rough and beats on his toys, he has a very sweet side. The other day I fell asleep on the couch for a couple seconds and when I woke up he was brushing my hair with his baby brush and patting my face. Then he tried to put his red converse shoes on my feet. Sometimes he will drop everything he is doing, run to me, kiss me and then go back to whatever he is doing.

3. He is starting to pick up on my sometimes OCD cleaning habits. The first thing he does when he gets out of his high chair is run for his toy vacuum so he can help sweep up the crumbs under his chair. One day in the church nursery he took the wipe he had been given to clean his hands and got down on his hands and knees and starting wiping the floor. (He had shattered a snow globe on the tile earlier in the day and had to sit in his high chair while he watched me clean up the mess of tiny styrofoam snow and plastic shards.)

4. He enjoys power tools. Check out the picture of him below. It was 7am and he had just gotten up. He absolutely loves his jackhammer. It lights up and makes noise.

A Video!

And to really make it up to you, here is a great video! I think Sam was about 5 months here.

A Long Vacation

Let me begin by apologizing for my hiatus from the blog. Now that Sam is walking and only taking one nap a day, I have less time for blogging. When I actually do have some free time I usually spend it laying brain dead on the couch in a puddle of drool. Its exhausting chasing a little one around and saying "NO" and "Don't touch!" all day long. SO to make it up to you, here are some SUPER cute pics of little man.

Thank Magic Eraser!

The Magic Eraser is the absolute best cleaning product on the planet! Truly it is! if you've never tried it, you HAVE to. Pedro and I decided last summer that we liked the clean look of white appliances, but never having had white appliances before, we didn't realize how painful it would be to keep them looking clean. I LOVE my gas stove, but trying to keep the white top and gray grates clean has been a miserable process. Then someone suggested the Magic Eraser. I was skeptical at first, but it is amazing. It cleans up everything on the stove and I barely have to use any elbow grease. Thank you magic eraser! You rock!

And now, we interrupt this commercial with some pics of Sam. I know its the only reason people read this blog in the first place.

Laundry

Samson LOVES laundry. Everything was folded and neatly sorted into baskets. Within two minutes, everything was a tangled mess. But how can you be mad at that sweet face? It made me laugh.

Hungry Boy

My boys are big eaters. Especially my little boy. I Know I just did a post of pics of him eating, but I had to do another one. Its such a mess. This morning Sam had toast and then an entire container of pears mixed with quite a bit of oatmeal. Then some yogurt melts. For his mid-morning snack he had more oatmeal, cottage cheese and diced pears. He insisted on feeding himself. Doesn't that look delicious?
We're working hard at teaching him the sign for more, but right now, he points if he wants more of something.

P.S. Mom, if you're reading this, Sam ate the entire box of Zwieback toast, the crackers and the yogurt melts in a week.

Food Fight

Now that my little guy is starting to eat real food, he wants less of the baby variety. He loves his puffs, yogurt melts, diced fruits and veggies, zwieback toast, crackers, mashed potatoes, cheese, meat sticks and basically whatever Pedro and I are eating. Yesterday, he ate all my yogurt. I think I got one bite.
He has now decided that when he has to eat something requiring a spoon, he wants to feed himself. Haha, what a mess, I mean blast, that is. I put a little of whatever he is eating on the tray and he tries his very hardest to get it on the spoon and into his mouth. Usually while he does this I sit next to him with a spoon and a bowl and help the process along. Today he decided that he wanted to feed ME. Every time I gave him a spoonful, he would mash his spoon into the gunk on his tray and push it into my mouth. Mmmmmmmm, there is nothing quite as tasty as chicken and apple puree with a side of baby slobber, but it was sweet and since I went through 9 long hours of labor and a c-section, I think I'll keep him.

Wednesday Cuteness

I LOVE him! I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOOOOVE my son. That's all I can say. The pictures speak for themselves. I want to pinch his fat rolls and kiss his chunky cheeks. CONSTANTLY.

Happy Belated Easter

I have taken a TON of pictures in the last week, but I haven't had much time to blog. Solo & Ensemble us is coming up on Saturday and I am doubling up on lessons for a lot of my students so forgive me for the lack of posts. I hope everyone had a relaxing Easter.

STANDING!

That's my baby!!! He's STANDING!! He's been doing it for about a week now and each day he is able to stay up for progressively longer. Sometimes he tries to take steps! This is the first time we've gotten it on camera. And yes, those are MY Kermit the Frog PJ's. Now, excuse me while I go run circles around the house in excitement.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot about Flashback Friday. Here he is at 3 hours old.

Pants-ed

Its official that I don't know how to spell pantsed, pansed, pant-sed, pants-ed? Oh who cares. Yesterday afternoon I went into Sam's room after his nap and was greeted by a pile of socks and PANTS laying on the floor by his crib.

There is never a dull moment in our house.

Eat your heart out Martha Stewart

My crib rail protectors are finally finished. They may not be the most polished looking bit of decor. I'm definitely no Martha Stewart. However, I think they'll get the job done. The best part about the project was that it used materials I already had and took me maybe 5 minutes. We're going to make them together. Are you ready? Let's go. Begin with a receiving blanket. I used four total for the entire crib. These receiving blankets are soft flannel and match Sam's bedding. You could probably use any soft receiving blanket. I like the flannel because the fabric stays in place. I think cotton would slip around on the rails too much.

Take your receiving blanket and lay it out flat with the wrong side facing up. If you really want to be prissy, you can iron it and get rid of the wrinkles, but who cares. Its going on a crib and its going to be chewed and slobbered on. (Is it "its" or "it's?")

Now take a long side and fold it in towards the center. Take the opposite end and fold it in towards the center as well.

Now at this point, you could certainly sew the folded sides in place, but I don't have time to mess with my sewing machine right now. That would involve bringing it up from the basement since the builder of our fine home didn't see fit to add more than one outlet in the living space of our basement. So much for my basement sewing room and home office. That's a whole other project.

Now take the whole thing and fold it in half on itself. It will look something like this:


Now we are going to add velcro. The adhesive kind. Yes, I said adhesive. I don't have time to mess with sewing remember? Take a deep breath. It may be white trash, but it works. These are desperate times.


At this point my camera batteries died. The pictures will return shortly.
I took about 2 inches of velcro and cut it into 8 pieces, about a quarter inch each. I used four pieces per side crib rail. I put the velcro along the bottom edge of the folded blanket for the first cover and then pinned it more snuggly at the base of the rail. Don't just randomly place your velcro. Hang the cover over the crib rail first so that you can get the best fit. Our side rails are thinner toward the front and thicker toward the back. With the other side, I placed the velcro so that it would fit snuggly just below the rail. I don't like the loose ends, but either way works just as well. For the front rail of the crib, I had to use two receiving blankets. Because we have a sleigh bed style crib, I was even more ghetto and pinned the blankets in place because I had to fold them differently and couldn't finagle the velcro the way I wanted it. Here is how it looks.



Again it isn't professional, but they have held up through two naps and one night without shifting.

Sprint Strikes Again

Sprint has zinged us yet AGAIN. In fact, I'll now be referring to them as ZingMobile. Sam enjoys playing with my cell phone. Last night after he had finished playing with it, I picked it up to see "Service Required, Please call 1-888-211-4727 for further assistance." I turned it on and off, but no dice. I used Pedro's phone to call Customer Service and shockingly, I got right through to someone. Note to self that 6:30pm EST is a good time to call. The lady from tech support suggested that I turn my phone off, take the battery out for 10 seconds to reset. Did it work? NOPE! Then tech support lady informs me that she'll have to transfer me to someone in Tech Support. Wait? I thought that's who I was talking with? What?
They transfered me to someone who was clearly from.....India! Shocker. (And let me say I have NO problem whatsoever with people from other countries, I just think its funny that India seems to be the go to country for Tech Support.)
India Lady: Yes, how can I help you with?
Me: My phone says "Service Required, Please call 1-888-211-4727 for further assistance." I've already turned it off and taken the battery out and that did nothing."
IL: Yes, I need you to power your phone off and take your battery out.
Me: I already did that.
IL: I need you to turn off your phone and take your battery out.
Me: Ugh, fine. (Loooooooong pause) Um? Can I put the battery back?
IL: No. Not yet. (two more minutes go by) Ok. Replace your battery.
I put the battery back and power up the phone and guess what? SAME MESSAGE!
Me: Didn't work.
IL: How old is your phone?
Me: Almost 3 years old.
IL: You need a new phone. You are eligible for an upgrade. You'll have to go to your closest repair center. Would you like me to find that for you.
Me: No. I know where that is. Thanks.

Now, right before Pedro and I got married, we consolidated to a family plan. Pedro switched from Nextel to Sprint. When we did that I had to cancel my old plan and sign up for a new family plan contract. My phone was JUST short of being 2 years old (so actually my phone is ALMOST four years old!) and I wasn't eligible for an upgrade yet, even though Pedro was getting a brand new phone and we were signing up for a brand new contract. I don't understand the logic, but this is ZingMobile that we're talking about here.
So the real zinger is that NOW I'm eligible for a phone upgrade, but Pedro isn't yet since his phone is 4 months short of the 2 year mark meaning I have to sign up for another 2 years of service to get my new phone and we'll probably go through this all over again in another 18 months when Pedro's phone dies. Good thing we have insurance on his phone. Although that annoys me too. Insurance is for cars, home and health. Cell phones should be covered under a company warranty just like other electronics and appliances. I don't have to take out insurance on my refrigerator.

Crib Solutions

Remember the woes of our poor crib? Its only gotten worse. Now Sam is gnawing pieces of wood out of the crib. At least he is getting some extra fiber in his diet. At this point I am pretty sure it is a deliberate act of defiance because when I go in to his room to get him after his nap, all I have to do is point to the freshly gnawed wood and he instantly starts crying and burrows his head into my shoulder. Anyways, I decided it was time for action. After perusing a lot of fabric, I couldn't quite find what I wanted. It was either too thick, too heavy, too light or not the right shade. My type A side likes it when things are matchy matchy. The other night I had an epiphany! What if I used a few of the receiving blankets that coordinate with Sam's bedding. Receiving blankets are soft and cute, but lets face it, they are useless when it comes to swaddling. I'll follow this up later with a detailed step-by-step instruction guide. Right now, Sam's awake. Gotta run!

Happy Baby.

Sam is so cute sometimes I can hardly stand it. That sweet toothy smile melts my heart every time. I also get flutters when I see his cute baby fat, but thats a whole other issue.

Last night the little cutie was playing with my cell phone and climbing all over Pedro while I practiced some songs on the piano. Apparently, he called my mom. She heard him breathing and talking in the background. Neither Pedro or I realized it until my mom called this morning to tell us. Oops. Good thing we have those weekend minutes.

That furry white thing in my hand is Sam's best friend Mr. Mousey. He loves him! Anytime we need to cheer him up or make him laugh, we get out Mr. Mousey. Sam has been sick with a cold and a little cranky so Mr. Mousey was giving him a tickle attack.

Our yard

Our yard needs work. A LOT of work. When we moved in, we had green grass, but no landscaping to speak of. Now, we don't even have the green grass thanks to the county insisting that we hook in to the public water system. Here is our yard in ALL its glory.

It's depressing and yet exciting. After all, it is a blank canvas.

While I'm at it, here's what I see when I turn to my left.
I can't think of anything nice to say. Honestly! I want to shout out my door "If you can afford to drive a Mercedes SUV you can afford to have someone come get your BMW, Jaguar and Mercedes Sedan(its further up the drive, I couldn't squeeze it into the picture.) Heck, they would probably even pay you for the scrap metal. And while you're at it, maybe you can give away some of the bags of leaves as a free gift with purchase."