It’s the Thought that Counts

“It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.”

— Mother Teresa

Snowy Day Rambling

It looks like we are going to have another snow storm here today on the east coast. Our first snowfall was this past Sunday, and it was a lot more than just the dusting to an inch the weather people predicted. Some parts of our area ended up with 11 inches. That’s a big difference. For today they are estimating up to six inches, but because it is so cold here and because they think ice will come at the end of this storm people are taking this warning a little more seriously. The schools closed even though the snow hasn’t started to fall yet. Are they overreacting this time? Probably not, but who knows. Only time will tell how bad it really gets. I’m happy for the people who have been told not to report to work or school, but I am kind of dreading being stuck in the house with bored teens and BF who needs to get a lot of work done from home.

I suppose I can bake cookies with Natalie and encourage Isaac to go shovel sidewalks and driveways. He usually makes out very well making money in these situations. He shoveled two houses on Sunday and made $35. We can also decorate for Christmas and watch some holiday movies. I hope they don’t bicker. BF brought home a tree on Saturday and it’s nice. It’s the kind with long soft needles, I’m sorry I don’t know the name. The only types of trees I know by name are Blue Spruce and Douglas Fir, which I don’t believe either is the type we have. It’s not a huge tree, like the one I had a few years ago, but it fits in the house perfectly. It’s about seven feet tall and maybe three feet wide at the bottom. A nice size, with nice needles, though it isn’t very fragrant.

This past weekend I had great luck making chicken noodle soup. I have struggled with making a good batch of it for years now and while my attempts have gotten better over the years, none have been impressive. This time it was. Oh my, it is good! I referenced two recipes and then winged it. It really was good, everyone else agreed and I just hope I will remember what I did the next time I want to make it. I suppose I should write it down.

I’m a bit upset about one thing that happened this weekend. We recently ordered six place settings of Fiesta dishes because they were on sale for $23.99 at Macy’s. Usually they are $54.99 a setting and I have been longing for these colorful dishes for years and years so BF was a sweetheart and ordered them. We received one shipment of five sets and were waiting for the last setting to come in for a week. It was the setting in my favorite color, turquoise and it was supposed to arrive on Saturday via Fed-Ex. When BF asked if the plates came I said no and that I was disappointed. He went on-line to check the status and it said that they were delivered at 6:30 pm the day before!! They weren’t delivered here, so who has my plates and why would they be such jerks to keep them?! I’m so sad. I would never keep someone else’s package! Of course I called Fed-Ex straight away but they said they would call me back yesterday or today but I haven’t heard anything yet. BF said we won’t get them, Fed-Ex will just say they were delivered and we have to take a loss. How is that okay? It just isn’t fair, but I suppose life often isn’t. At least it wasn’t the shipment of five right? Sigh. Now the dishes aren’t on sale any more either and I’m not paying $55 for something I’ve already paid $24 for.

Elliot turned six months old yesterday and as I suspected it flew by. I never knew just how fast time moved until I had kids. Now that I know this time around I am enjoying every moment as best as I can but it still goes by too fast. I suppose I have it in my mind that he will be my last baby, even though we’ve talked about trying for one more when El is two, but nothing is certain. I had an IUD inserted a few months ago so there won’t be any accidents and I have to say it sure puts my mind at ease. Not that I don’t want another, I’m not sure how I feel about that for certain yet, but I definitely don’t want another right now! Natalie and Isaac are only 15 months apart and for the life of me I don’t know how I did it. I also feel bad that Natalie didn’t get much time to be an only child. Isaac has always hogged most of the attention and it would have been nice for her to have me all to herself for a longer amount of time. It was nice that they were so close in age and were best friends for so many years, but then they constantly bickered for many years after that. At this point they are somewhere in the middle. They don’t fight too often anymore and treat each other pretty decently, but I think that has a lot to do with the changes to our lives, more than them growing up or what have you.

Fibromyalgia
I haven’t written about Fibromyalgia since I started blogging again and I suppose that was because I just want it to go away. If I don’t pay it much mind it doesn’t bother me as much as if it does when I focus on the pain. Ah, but the pain is sill here, every day, some days worse than others. My pregnancy was horrible. My OBGYN told me that it shouldn’t be effected either way, good or bad, and I had read about a few people who actually went into remission during pregnancy. I was so hopeful, but alas, that wasn’t the case for me. I was in a 9 month flair and because I was pregnant I stopped taking all medications, except for Tylenol when I absolutely couldn’t stand it anymore. After I had Elliot though I had about three weeks of remission. I can’t even begin to tell you what it felt like to feel normal again. I foolishly thought I was cured and cried so hard when I flared again for the first time, not so much because of pain, but more because it was back. Suck it up buttercup. It is what it is. I am grateful for the three weeks I had of absolutely no pain and it gives me hope that my future holds more times like that. I’m still not on any medications but I take a plethora of vitamins when I remember. BF did a lot of research and ordered me Omega 3,6,9, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Seaweed extract. I also take prenatals and have been given iron because I have anemia. I think if I actually took everything everyday it would be beneficial, but there is something about swallowing a whole meals worth of pills that irks me, so I avoid it unless I am really feeling horrible.

Insomnia
My insomnia has come back and I wake up multiple times a night. This used to really bother me but now I just roll with it. When I wake up at three now I give myself an hour and if I am not able to fall back asleep I just get up. When I was pregnant I really suffered the worst. I had to stop taking my Kolonzipan immediately and it took a few months to find something that worked and was okay per my OBGYN. Believe it or not Unisom helped the best, but I can’t take it now because I’m afraid I’ll sleep through the baby waking up to nurse.

Depression
My depression never went away and because I stopped my antidepressants when I found out I was pregnant, it was pretty rough for a while. I knew it would be a challenging time though, and I reminded myself on a daily basis that I would get through it. There was great concern about postpartum depression becoming an issue, so I worked closely with doctors and nurses regarding after care. I am still not on medication, and some days are worse than others, but overall I’m doing well. Once I am finished breastfeeding I will decide if I need to go back on medication. I think I will because it was helping a lot, but I also have been doing alright without it. I guess I’ll have to see what my therapist says. Speaking of which, I need to go back to therapy, I haven’t gone in quite some time and feel I’ll benefit from regular meetings again. The trouble is finding one that I like. The woman I used to meet with isn’t where she used to be and I didn’t feel the same way about the lady that took over for her. She was nice enough, I think I just wanted my other therapist back and couldn’t open up to someone new all over again. I suppose I’ll have to do that at some point, and hopefully it won’t be so hard this time around.

Well, it’s snowing hard and our house is hustling and bustling with activity so, I will wrap this up. There was no real point to this post, just a lot of things on my mind that I wanted to write about. I hope everyone will enjoy your day, whether it’s a snow day for you or not.

El the Elf

We used a free iphone app by Office Max called Elf Yourself to make this funny video starring El as a dancing elf. We have been making a lot of these videos over the past few days and it’s been a fun and easy way to entertain everyone for a few minutes.

If you have an iphone or an ipad, and you haven’t played with it already, check it out by clicking the link above!

We Hate Steak!

I used to complain about my mom always making chicken or steak for dinner when I was growing up. “It’s always chicken or steak! I hate steak! We had chicken the other day!” I wonder how many of the below conversations my mom had with me about the menu.

“Mom, what’s for dinner?”

“Pot roast and mashed potatoes but they won’t be ready for a few hours.”

“URGHHH. Why do you keep making stuff I don’t want?!”

“Well, what would you want?”

“We had steak yesterday. And. You know I hate steak.”

“You love steak. What would you like to eat?”

“You are always making stuff that I don’t like!”

“Well, what would you like to eat?”

“What is there?”

“Pot roast but it won’t be ready for a few hours.”

“URGH…”

“I can make what you like to eat tomorrow. What would you like?”

“I’m ordering food from Golden Crust.”

“If you want to waste your money, then fine. But, what would you like for dinner tomorrow?”

“Yeah, I don’t want to waste my money. Can I get a sandwich at Wawa?”

“No, I’m not spending money. I made pot roast. You’ll like it. It’s good. What would you like tomorrow?!”

{he orders fries and mozzarella sticks; then eats dinner with us anyway}

“This is really good and I love the potatoes! It’s like roast beef!”

“That’s what pot roast is. Did you decide what you want tomorrow?”

“…”

***

“Mom, what’s for dinner?”

“Sandwiches from Wawa.”

“URGHH! You said it was my turn to pick!”

“You never answered me and I’m not going to the market now.”

“But I want hamburgers!”

I was one of four kids. Did my sister, brothers, or dad gave her lip about what she was cooking, too? How she didn’t give up making dinner every night of week, I’ll never know. She must have wanted to strangle me.

I’m sorry for being such a brat, Mom. I hope it brings a smile to your face knowing that karma has come back two-fold to bite me in my ass.

Related articles

• Maw Maw’s Country-Style Steak (lynnettestestkitchen.wordpress.com)
• Pot Roast Recipe (shanestevenslink.wordpress.com)
• Steak and Wine (bustychef.wordpress.com)
• Chicken Fried Steak (sistersofspice.wordpress.com)

Co-Sleeping Equals No Sleeping

Our youngest, who’s almost six months old, sure loves hijacking our bed sleeping with us. This was nice for a little while, but now it’s just annoying. Sure, it was fun in the beginning, and it felt nice to have him snuggle with us, but after a few months, co-sleeping has become a literal pain in the neck.

Seriously.
My neck hurts.

Like me, baby boy loves to snuggle. and stretch out. simultaneously. and he’s really good at it. He does this in such a way that I often wake up finding myself half-way off of the bed while his head is buried in my neck and his little feet are pressed firm against BF’s chest.

Aside from the bed hog hogging the bed, he likes to wake up frantically in “starving to death” mode, every three hours. Baby boy then nurses for 8 seconds before falling back asleep while I am left to lay the most uncomfortable way possible.

BF and I are realizing how ridiculous this has become and want to move him to his crib so we can snuggle with each other. And sleep. On the bed. It’s not that we don’t love baby boy, we just love (and miss) un-sore necks and unbroken sleep. So, we are making a plan to sleep train our little monster. It will be lovely when he sleeps in his crib. By himself. Hopefully, our plan will work and we will all sleep comfortably through the night.

Related articles

• Sleeping Arrangements (tripletlearning.wordpress.com)
• No Sleep Til… (kyleymarie.wordpress.com)
• I Need a Baby Whisperer (mashedpotatoesblog.com)

Live Blogging From Our Kitchen: He Don’t Need No Stinkin Recipe!

Tonight I’ve decided to try something different.. Live blogging, from the kitchen, while BF makes a yummy dinner.

He’s trying something new tonight and so far I’m loving the ingredients..

Asiago and Romano

Butter

Riccotta, mint, rosemary and thyme

Riccotta

Super cool picture 😉

Snap peas

Carrots

These are the babysitters while we work..

They won’t change no stinkin diaper!

So what BF has done so far was finely chop mint, thyme, and rosemary and added them to a small container of riccota and then stirred in a palm-full of each Romano and Asiago cheese.

And I’ve been summoned to change poop…

Be right back!

False alarm! He just wants to eat. How awkward.

Now back to the food!!

Then he washed and rough cut carrots and snap peas — why, I don’t know yet..

While I was gone he :

• pounded down some chicken breasts (with a rolling pin, need that meat tenderizer)
• rolled some of the cheese mixture up into the breasts and tied with twine
• poured some butter over each (need that pastry brush)
• ground black pepper and fancy pink Himalayan salt (OOOh lala) over chicken

And I took a few more pictures but the battery on my camera died.

So, we will just let that charge

while the chicken bakes
at 400 degrees
for about 25ish minutes.

 Okay! Camera is back! Here is the chicken before it went in the oven:

And here are the mysterious snap peas and carrots:

He just sauteed them with garlic, butter, salt and pepper.

Isaac is home in time to eat!

It smells so good in here! Yay! Chicken is done!

This was such a great meal and a lot of fun to do!

She Forgot to Mention One Little Thing

My daughter “HATES” Christmas music. She’s been saying this for over two years now but could never give me a reason. I don’t believe that she really hates it, maybe it annoys her, but hate! That’s a pretty strong feeling to have against Frosty.

We tease her about it occasionally, but this morning we decided to take it up a notch:

• Every time we walked by her, or were in hearing range, we’d “accidentally” sing a Christmas song.
• We determined that El wanted to listen to (rather loud) Chipmunks singing Rocking Around the Christmas Tree while he was in his bouncer. He loved it. She did not.
• We thought it would be fun to play more Christmas songs — after making sure the music could be heard from where she was sitting downstairs.
• We told her we were thinking of installing a whole house stereo system.
• My favorite part of the morning was when I found all the Christmas songs she used to love as a little kid on You Tube, then posted them on her Facebook page.

She loves us. And I know she secretly still loves Christmas music. Or, maybe I’m just really evil.

“They get stuck in my head all day,” she explained this evening.

She’s probably laying in bed now, counting reindeer, trying to fall asleep. I should go sing her a lullaby..

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

One Thanksgiving, when I was about eight years old, my brothers and I were watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in the living room while my Mom and Dad were cooking in the kitchen. My brothers and I were enjoying the floats and the big character balloons up until the very end when the last float of the parade was Santa’s Sleigh. It pumped out Christmas music as dancers dressed liked elves pranced around the float and Santa waved from the top. I ran into the kitchen to tell my parents how crazy the parade was to have Santa, “Christmas is still another month away!”

Being a child, a month felt like such a long time and December was always the longest month. It now strikes me as funny that I was so annoyed with the Santa Clause float. I was just a kid and I wonder why the float didn’t excite me and put me in the holiday spirit.

As the years of my adulthood pass, I witness Christmas being egged on sooner and sooner by retailers. Just last month when BF and I were at the nearby mall, walking through Bloomingdale’s we saw a few workers pulling out elaborate Christmas decorations. I rolled my eyes a bit but held onto comments about how ridiculous it felt to see Christmas displays when Halloween was still a few weeks away.

Over the past few weeks it’s been hard not to notice all the sales the stores are advertizing. Good sales, at that. I thought they were just clearing out stock so they could bring in seasonal items to sell, at first, but most of the discounts I’ve seen have been for things people will be buying for Christmas gifts. Video games, tv’s, toys, winter clothes and accessories, appliances, and home goods. Is it true? Is the holiday season already upon us?

For some reason I am not feeling as annoyed with it this year as I have been in the past. Maybe it’s because I have a baby now and little kids make Christmas feel more exciting. Maybe I am just happier and less cynical than I have been in the past. Maybe I am just used to being told we should get in the spirit sooner than later and have finally been brainwashed.

Last night, while driving home through the city, I spotted a lit up and fully decorated Christmas tree in someone’s apartment. I did an out-loud chuckle and pointed it out to BF. Through the rest of the ride home we saw no less than a dozen homes lit up with Christmas lights. BF asked if I had Christmas lights we could put up this year. Ten minutes had passed before I noticed the excitement brewing inside of me about decorating the house this year. Maybe even early.

Then I thought about all the Christmas things we’ve already begun doing early. We started watching holiday movies last week. Natalie and I talked about restarting our “bake a million Christmas cookies” tradition again. I’ve been thinking about what gifts to buy. There have been talks about a tree. The 8-year-old version of myself wants to scream “What, are you crazy?!” The 35-year-old kid in me feels good to get excited about Christmas again.

For the past three years our Christmases have been very low-key. I was tight on a budget, I was depressed, in pain, and I certainly wasn’t in the spirit. I almost feel like I want to make up for all the missed laughter and fun moments this year. I think I will decorate early. I will play holiday music and continue watching happy movies. I’ll make a ridiculous amount of cookies and enjoy buying gifts. I look forward to seeing the stores decorated and I’ll see past the frowns on people’s faces and focus on the ones who are smiling. I’m excited to spend time with my family and loved ones this year and I’m going to make it my mission to get the older kids excited for Christmas again, too.

Sensai Trains the Toilet Paper Ninja

We do so many silly things in this house on a daily basis that I’ve decided to make Sunday’s about our silliness. I might tell a short story, post some images capturing the moments, or maybe a video, who knows. We really are a wacky bunch who like to goof around and laugh.

In my first post for Silly Sunday I’ve included some pictures I took of my sons. Isaac (the older one) dressed El (the baby) up in toilet paper and a snap bracelet and taught him some karate. I told you we were goofy 🙂

Happiness at Fourteen

Yesterday was my middle child’s birthday. He turned 14. 14! I can hardly believe how fast it all goes by. I’m pretty sure that is the same anthem every parent sings and it isn’t news  that kids grow up so fast. But 14!

We didn’t have a birthday party for him — I stopped those when they hit age 10 and all they wanted to have were expensive and annoying sleepovers. Instead, we had a really nice day, all five of us, just hanging around the house and feeling happy. BF decided to get my son his favorite dinner as a surprise, then we sang Happy Birthday, had ice-cream cake and watched a movie together.

What made me happiest about the day was that even though we didn’t do anything spectacular, or go anywhere expensive, my son told me it was the best birthday he’s had in years. He was so grateful for his gift and grateful that we only thought of him for the day. It makes me feel so good that after all the crap we’ve been through he is genuinely the happiest I’ve ever seen him.

Our home has never been happier or more loving than it is now. Gone are the days of worrying about being ourselves, feeling anxious, or worrying about what the days and nights might hold. We walk through the rooms of this house not having to anticipate being yelled at, argued with, or antagonized. Now we walk through this house laughing, joking and smiling with one another.

Life feels good, and it’s wonderful to hear my son say it, and to know how good he feels inside these days.