Cleanliness

Just finishing dinner, Ellie headed for the toys.  "Wait," I cautioned, "you need to go wash your hands first!"
Ellie stomped her little foot, then whined a retort, "But, I already licked 'em!"

Ellie

This morning there were about 20 stupid magnets on the floor in front of the refrigerator.  I'd stepped on a couple, and frustrated I called out to Ellie, "Can you come in and pick these up while Mom cleans up breakfast?" 
"No . . ." Ellie calls out from the other room.
Greg, who was on his way out the door for a meeting, told Ellie, "Ellie, go pick up the magnets or go sit in time out for three minutes."
Ellie groaned, sighed, and rolled her eyes, then angrily shuffled over to the base of the fridge, plopped herself down and started picking them up.  I left the room to put something away, when about 20 seconds later I hear a voice call out, "MOM?  Can I just go sit in time out . . . "

Organizing My Nest

So, it suddenly seemed vitally important tonight to organize the playroom. I'm talking dump out every single basket, storage bin and cubbie and start from scratch. It's as perfectly organized as it was the day we set up the playroom in the first place. Of course . . . the girls are downstairs playing right now, so it's probably not gonna last long . . .

Of course, cleaning frenzies (of such fervor that my husband and children steered clear and I worked straight through the dinner I'd cooked for the rest of the family) bring up one thing when you're 9 months pregnant -- nesting. Truthfully, I don't remember nesting before the birth of my first two kids. I was mildly obsessed with making sure my hospital bag was in the trunk and the carseat was properly installed -- but not once did I scrub out the fridge or clean floorboards with a toothbrush in some last ditch effort to get cleaned and organized. But lately, all I can think about is my front hall closet being cluttered, my pantry needing to be organized, my refrigerator shelves needing to be wiped clean, the girls' carseats needing to be shampooed and the baby's room needing to be perfected. Can't stop obsessing.

I don't think 'nesting' is working out so well for me. If I had a nice little 24 hour burst of energy, that'd be great. But, the problem is I have an estimated three weeks left of this pregnancy and if I clean with such gusto as I did tonight, and complete all the projects that now seem so urgent, I'm gonna be awfully tired by the time the baby gets here . . .


Edited to add: I sent the following email to my sisters . . .

Subject: Funnest Girls Night Ever!
Wanna know what'd be so cool!? If you guys came over on Saturday, and hung out with me and helped me get stuff ready for the baby! You know, like organize his room, sort through the baby toys, clean my pantry, that kinda stuff!!!! Doesn't it sound like a blast!?!?! Who's with me!!! :-)

Think they'll fall for it?

Domestic Goddess?

I've never claimed to be the most 'domestic' person out there -- I mean, I try and keep a clean house and feed my family healthy homemade food, at least a big chunk of the time. I don't regularly steam clean my floor boards, defrost my freezer or scrub out my oven, and there aren't any handmade crafts around, or beautifully decorated rooms (in fact, both of my upstairs bathrooms are still bare after a year and a half of living here.) And apparently my kids haven't missed the fact that I may be a bit lacking in this area . . .

Annie was looking down, sadly, at the wrinkled bow on the front of her dress this morning and said, "Hey Mom, do you think we could go by Grandma's later so she could iron my bow for me?"

My response, rather than get out my iron and take care of it, and prove to my four year old that I am in fact capable of ironing, was, "Sure, we could swing by there later." :-)

My "Day Off"

Just an update on my weekday where I wasn't solely responsible for the children: I still didn't get in three hours of left-side-lying. I really kinda suck at that.

But, I did nap.

And I listened to my 'Hypnobirthing' CD in the middle of the day, rather than right before bed, which means whereas I'm usually out within 4 minutes and hear very little of the CD, today I listened to a full 15 minutes before I was fast asleep (on my left side -- for the next hour). Success!

I took a long bath while finishing the book I've been reading all week.

I did my hair super cute. And now I won't have to straighten it tomorrow, and possibly Saturday.

I didn't cook a single thing.

In fact, I ate breakfast in bed (while folding clothes, but still!) I didn't actually leave the upstairs until after noon.

And I got four different graphics jobs done, and there is not a single 'starred' thing left in my email inbox. (I star anything I have to follow up on. I caught up completely today. Go me.)

Greg picked me up angel food cake to go with the strawberries we have in the fridge.

I folded and put away three loads of laundry. Do you know how often I sort laundry into nice little piles all around my bedroom, and then those piles sit there for several days, making my room look cluttered and junky? The vast majority of the time. Today, while Greg got the girls breakfast ready, and (from the sound of it) played endless rounds of "Ring Around the Rosies", I got everything sorted, folded, hung up and put away.

Greg took the girls to run errands, and they ended up going to his parent's house and eating dinner, while I stayed home and had the house to myself.

And, we got a new Nikon D5000.

Today was a very good day.

The best part is -- tomorrow I'm solo again, but then it's the weekend!

Thanks Greg! I love you! Consider the new camera your 'thank you' gift! :-)

The Real Reason I Had Kids

And once they know how to unload the dishwasher without my help, my life will be complete. :-)

How Much!?

So, we just bought almost 300 pounds of wheat today.

Sounds excessive, right? I would've thought so too, but we realized two things today. 1.) Macey's caselot sale is going on, and they have buckets of wheat for $12.98 or something like that, which is a good $10 less than normal. (We also bought Vital Wheat Gluten and Dough Enhancer much cheaper than normal -- two useful things for breadmaking -- an art I'm just starting to delve into.) And 2.) Greg and I just noticed today that we've gone through 45 lbs a week in a little less than three months. THREE MONTHS. FORTY FIVE POUNDS! I had no idea. I got my wheat grinder for Christmas, and it took us a couple weeks to get around to setting it up, not to mention we still had wheat flour on hand we'd purchased in the past, so we didn't get going with it right away. Then, to add to my cluelessness of our wheat consumption, Greg actually runs most of the wheat through the grinder on Saturday mornings when he makes us whole wheat waffles, while I'm upstairs getting ready or entertaining the girls, so I had never noticed the bucket steadily emptying.

I'm amazed we went through so much though. I mean, I make bread once a week or so. Just one loaf, in the automatic breadmaker (that's as tricky as I get). We still buy most of our bread at the store, for stuff like toast and sandwiches; I just make it so we have something warm and tasty to spread butter and jam on for a snack now and then. Greg makes us waffles, and his amazing whole wheat pizza dough. And the occasional dinner rolls. And I use it if I make cookies with the girls or something, we've tried to replace white flour (at least half of it) in any baking we do. But really, it never felt like that much. If I ever got with my whole 'make all our own bread' crazy dream, who knows how much we'd go through, what with the almost daily french toast, toast or sandwiches my girls down. So, for the first time in my life, 300 pounds of wheat just doesn't sound that crazy anymore.

Healthy Eating

Healthy: The warm, soft loaf of 100% whole wheat bread that I made yesterday from scratch. Even ground our own wheat.

Less healthy: Apparently, I've single-handedily gone through better than half a cube of butter in that same time period.

Oops.

(At least it's not M&Ms!)

Recipe Exchange

We had my parents over for dinner and dessert tonight. Our dinner was Greg's world famous homemade pizza. Just for fun, I'm gonna share our recipe.

First, the dough:

2 1/2 C. Medium Hot Water
5 tsp. SAF Instant Yeast*
2 Tbsp. Sugar
3 Tbsp. Oil
1 tsp. Salt
6 C. Flour (we do this 100% whole wheat, it's a bit chewier, less crispy on the bottom, but still really good)
Olive Oil

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees or so.
2. Add all ingredients into our Kitchen Aid. Gradually add approximately 6 cups of flour.
3. Spread a thin layer of olive oil on the pan.
4. Allow to double in size (About 10-15 minutes)
5. Roll out dough in two cookie sheets (we do just over 1/3 of the dough in one for my 'thinner' pizza, and the rest in another for Greg's thicker pizza -- we have a lot of left overs or we have people over when we make this. You could easily half the recipe as well.)
6. Top with pizza toppings.

Our topping preferences:
A very thin layer of alfredo sauce on the dough.
Baby spinach leaves, coarsely chopped or whole, covering the sauce.
Top with mozarella.
Cook up sausage (we prefer Jimmy Dean's Hot -- great flavor with almost no fat) then saute onions in fat.
Spread sausage and onions on the pizza, then put in oven (one at a time -- bottom shelf) until crust is done.

Mmmmmmm.

For dessert we made homemade Reeses Miniatures. These are possibly the most addictive substance known to man. And the kids sure had a good time rolling out the peanut butter mixture and dipping them in chocolate:







They're the simplest things to make too . . . you just start with the centers:
1 lb. powdered sugar
1 c. melted butter
1 package (10) graham crackers (crushed fine)
2 c. peanut butter

Mix all ingredients. (The graham crackers seemed weird to me at first, but they totally give these the Reese's peanut butter texture.) Let is sit in the fridge for awhile, then roll small balls and dip in chocolate (we just used chocolate chips melted in the microwave.) Then you're supposed to let them cool and set up, but we just ate them with warm chocolate dripping off them. :-)

Then, just some other pictures from this week.
Annie goofing off for the camera the other day.

Ellie and Daddy watching Dumbo on the computer. This is her favorite past time while sick.

Ellie really getting into the movie.

Annie still mugging for the camera.

Annie wanted to help me take pictures of my pregnant belly. I didn't know until I looked at it later that it really was just my belly she got in the shot. :-) This is the only picture she took, and my face isn't anywhere near in frame, but it wasn't a bad shot of the belly (at 22 weeks).

Breakfast Nutrition 101

I try to feed my kids a pretty health breakfast. Many mornings, I whip up some eggs, milk, cinnamon extract, cinnamon, vanilla, and pumpkin pie spice, and dip some wheat bread in and cook up some french toast. It's quite tasty. Then comes the tricky part -- sweetening the whole deal. We use peanut butter for half of the toast, as that's a fan favorite in our house. On the other half, I let them use syrup (a sugary evil that I kinda curse their father for introducing to them -- seriously, 220 calories a serving!!) But, since I'm trying to keep in low in sugar, they get about a teaspoon of syrup drizzled on their plates, that they'll rub their toast into the same place on the plate long after the bulk of the syrup is gone.

I was explaining to Annie this morning why we don't get a lot of syrup ("Like Dad does," were her words). I explained that the french toast was made with healthy stuff like eggs and wheat bread, but that the syrup was all sugar. So a little bit is OK, but not much. She thought about this for a second, then responded, "Yeah, 'cause we don't want to be wasteful . . . and unhealthy . . . and other stuff . . . " Well said, Annie. I'm glad we're on the same page here!

Of course, the other day I was feeling a little sick in the morning, so we melted cheese on saltines for breakfast. Ya can't win 'em all.

Then, just 'cause I love it, I'm gonna include my recipe for breakfast (the girls share this with me, and love it). I make a smoothie most mornings. (Or, I'll eat a piece of french toast with the girls, then make a smoothie as a snack around 10AM). I blend together 1-2 cups of spinach, a half cup or so of plain yogurt, and some juice (orange juice seems to sweeten best, but lately I've been using one of those V8 Fusion drinks, and it's good too). After that's all liquified, I throw in frozen fruit and a tablespoon or so of ground flaxseed. I keep frozen bananas, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, peaches, mangoes and pineapple on hand most of the time (the giant Costco blends of frozen fruit contain most of these). I blend it 'til it's sweetened up and almost shake like consistency, then enjoy! I love it, 'cause it tastes almost too good to be healthy!

I was very productive this morning. By 8:00AM I had cleaned my kitchen, scrubbed the microwave, disinfected all countertops, vacuumed and mopped the entire main floor, and even washed some walls. The secret to my success -- I turned on the TV in the front room, blasted one of those 'music only' channels on cable, the 'Kids Music' one -- filled with Hannah Montana and the like, and Annie and Ellie have been happily dancing and bopping for the last 45 minutes, pretty much uninterrupted. Why have I not done this before?!

Of course, despite their huge energy output, neither of them seem any closer to wanting to take a nap, while I'm just exhausted.

In other news, yesterday was my 18 week check up -- here's the highlights:

• We scheduled our ultrasound for next Friday. It's gonna be a long week and a half, but I'm so excited. (Sorry Amber, I'm just not strong enough to not find out :-). Even though I do think it'd be awesome to find out the sex at birth (and to keep everyone else annoyed and in the dark for the next several months). Maybe I could find a middle ground -- find out for myself next Friday, and just not tell anyone else 'til birth! :-) Nah, that would cut down on too many shopping months for my Mom to start spoiling the unborn grandchild. And if we get a boy this time, I'm gonna need all new stuff!)
• The baby kicked the doppler a lot again, but eventually we heard a strong heartbeat in the mid- to high-150s. My midwife said, "Sounds like a girl to me. And I'm right at least half of the time."
• I only gained three pounds this last month. Quite an improvement over the NINE I gained the month before. I was kinda shocked, as it appears I've put on 15 pounds just in my stomach in the last four weeks -- I don't know how I gained only three. It doesn't appear to have taken the weight from anywhere else!
The three vs. nine pounds thing probably has a lot to do with my nausea starting to get under control, so I no longer feel a near-constant compulsion to eat crackers and white bread around the clock. As well as the holidays being over.
• I totally forgot to ask the midwife what I can do about my gigantic cold sore outbreak all around my mouth. Seriously y'all, I have about 15 cold sores right now, all around one side of my mouth and along my lip line. It's pretty much the most disgusting, uncomfortable thing ever. I break out in cold sores my entire pregnancy, but this is ridiculous. This is not one of those things they tell you about in all those pregnancy books.
• The morning sickness appears to finally be letting up. I still feel crappy and fatigued off and on, but the nausea has only reared its ugly head twice in the past week. Yay. And, it's about time!

How to Decorate Cookies

Bake sugar cookies. (And I do just mean 'bake', as there was no other preparation. I used the already frozen in my freezer Pillsbury kind in this case -- in fact, they had pumpkins on them, 'cause I'd bought them on clearance after Halloween and stuck 'em in the freezer. 'Cause that's how I roll.)

Mix up a couple different colors of frosting.

Fill cute little cupcake cups with various toppings and sprinkles.

Let the kids loose.

Give up from trying to stop your one year old from shoveling the blue frosting in her mouth by the spoonful.

Watch helplessly as sprinkles are scattered over every inch of your kitchen floor.

Take pictures.

Spend 30 minutes vacuuming up sprinkles and another 20 minutes to clean up the one year old.

Be grateful you hadn't spent extra time making cookies from scratch!

Someone ended up with far more sprinkles and frosting on them than the cookies did!

I Am a Domestic Goddess

So, yesterday I spent more than my fair share of time in the kitchen. But I'm fairly pleased with the results.

I canned tomatoes.

That would be my first experience with canning (other than creatively avoiding my Mom for days as she worked on canning her homemade salsa she made for years while I was still at home). It took a long time, and made a huge mess, and I believe would not have even been worth my effort had I not been given all the cans, lids, supplies and tomatoes for free. But I'm really pleased with the fact I now have a shelf of freshly picked tomatoes ready to go anytime I want to make homemade spaghetti sauce. I've had some really sweet neighbors who lately have kinda taken me under their wing (and given me free produce!) and started teaching me all manner of useful stuff. Canning tomatoes was my first solo attempt at these new found skills. And I didn't screw anything up, so I'm really pretty happy with the results.


I also made some semi-healthy brownies with Annie. (Not really healthy, but just healthier than normal).

Did you know that you could take a can of black beans, drain off most the liquid, top it off with water so the can is full again, blend it all until smooth in a blender, then dump the liquid into the brownie mix, stir it altogether and bake according to the package instructions.

I have finally found a use for beans in my kitchen! (They're not my favorite).

And they weren't funky at all, no recognizable bean taste. The texture is different, more cakey, I guess . . . but top a warm one with whipped cream or ice cream, and it was really pretty good. And more nutritious and packed with way more fiber than your typical brownies. It was kind of a fun new experiment, and I was pretty pleased with how it turned out.


And now here's some random pictures of my girls from this morning. Annie was playing up to the computer before breakfast, and Ellie decided to join her. This is usually fun for a minute, until Annie just ends up yelling at Ellie for standing up instead of sitting down, for touching the mouse/keyboard/screen or for taking up too much room on the oversized office chair. This morning though went much better than normal, and it was cute to watch them while they were getting along so well!


At one point, due to the fact that everything else on the computer table is off limits to poor Ellie, she started to play with a lint brush. I think the only thing that made sense to her was that it must be a hair brush. So, she sat there and 'brushed' her hair with it for the next several minutes.



When her big sister, aka 'the Enforcer', wasn't looking, Ellie snatched up some lotion and had this very mischievous "I'm getting away with something" face going on . . .