Food

This blog was supposed to be about eating habits but I seem to have neglected that. Today we had homemade veggie burgers for lunch. I hate veggie burgers from the store. I think Boca burgers taste like warm cardboard. These were really good!
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Homemade-Black-Bean-Veggie-Burgers/Detail.aspx


We had them with chips and celery sticks. No one has wanted meat yet. Last night we had spinach pizza. It's funny, it's easier for me to give up meat than juice. I'm not sure what we'll have tonight. Mack got me a few cookbooks from the library. I'll have to go grocery shopping to grab a few things. Nicky ate his burger with no problems. That never happens. It seems like he survives on breastmilk alone some days.

Big day

Today is my 10th anniversary! No one thought we'd make it this long. It's quite an accomplishment. Aaron is 9 months old today. He can stand all alone for at least a minute. I bet he'll be walking next month. I spent the day cuddled with the kids on the couch. I did hair, read books, played games and watched movies. Mack left at 7am. He works 13 hours on Saturdays. He left me a card, it was very sweet.

Today I also watched Earthlings. WHY did I watch that movie? Every since then I get nauseous at the very thought of meat. I wonder how long, if at all, it will take for this to pass. We ended up with peas and carrots, brown rice and butternut squash for dinner. I'm half tempted to try the vegetarian thing....again. It'll be my 20th time and I never last longer than a couple weeks but then again, I hadn't seen this God awful movie before. Honestly, the movie wasn't bad. It was a good movie but it was very gory and I'm not sure I wanted to know those things like I thought I did.

Ode to couches and cars

I'm feeling kind of poetic, lol. This isn't what I had in mind but I got rushed and....oh well. I'm sure I'll fix it if I ever get a spare second.

The poor old couch fought a good fight. It withstood the wrath of Nicky's tantrums, endured the mighty Zachary's bounces. It's been a comfy bed for a tired father after work, a soft spot for a mom to relax and cuddle her new baby. It's had been a comfy reading spot for the big boy and a cuddle spot for tired sisters watching good movies. The signs of wear had started long ago. A few loose threads, a small rip on the back. It soon became apparent the old couch had to go. But it just wasn't ready; it had more love to give. So it was covered with blankets and the fluff was stuffed back in. This lasted a while longer before the old couch said no more. It was ready to go but had one last gift to give. Inside there were treasures! So many lost treats. We gently opened the bottom to see what was in store. We found dominoes and shoes, our new remote control. We found socks and old cookies, games pieces and lost coins. The greatest gift of all was a little toy car. This wasn't just any car it was THE YELLOW car! Nicky long lost friend had been found, once again it was handed over. Nicky's eyes shown with love as he held his old buddy. An old friendship started anew. The car's hiatus was over. Its old job was back. While the car's job was long and tedious the rewards were great. He slept in a comfy bed with his young friend. He'd taken many trips to the park, his favorite part was the slide. He was always safe in the hand of young Nicky and when he was lost everyone cared to find him. It was a good life. As the car watched the old couch retire he was happy to be Nicky's favorite toy to have many more years of love ahead to give and to receive.

Relax

I have completed all my soap orders! I'm so happy. In the last 4 weeks(I only worked 4 or 5 of those days though) I made probably 50 POUNDS of soap. That is a lot...for me anyway. I'm spending today making shea butter creams. That is going much slower than I thought it would. Probably because I'm exhausted. I also made bars to donate to MRU for the kids' gift swap. They smell yummy but didn't come out quite as planned, lol. I wanted swirl, I got amateur tie dye.

My classes are coming along. I fell a couple days behind but caught up last night. I'm going to try to stay caught up since doing a weeks worth of work in a night while cooking 8 pounds of soap isn't my idea of a good time. I'm also almost done with my birth class! I have one more class to go. My training weekend will be in February. I wish it were sooner. I'd like to be done.

The kids are loving swimming! They have come such a long way in such a short time. The can swim all the way to the middle of the pool. Some are doing better than others but they have all improved and having a great times. We went this past Monday and there was no class. We just hung out at the Y for a while and came home. We might go early next week so we can play racquet ball. That game is such fun! We didn't get to play this week because I was trying to convince Nicky that kid country is fun. It worked though I'm still not sure he'll stay. I'll probably have to go a few more times and hang out there with him before he'll stay without me. I'm not sure what happened. One day he'd stay and then all of a sudden he wouldn't.

We miss summer so much. I'm sure I've complained about that enough but I really dislike the cold. I hate being stuck inside. I miss park days. At this time of year I'm thankful for MRU and the Y. At least we have some place to go hang out when it's too cold to be outside.

Today is the day we'll get this house back in order! I've been saying this for months. I'm not sure it will actually happen but I'm hopeful. I did clean my soap room. I've been working in there so much it was a mess. And when I'm not in there it becomes a catch all for Mack. He just sits stuff in there and forgets to remove it.

This winter, I think we'll concentrate on crafts more. We're always bored and the kids are always asking to do them. We made little wood car and plane models last weekend and painted them. We got cute and creative. Zach's is very interesting. It's not exactly how it looks on the box but it's a plane all the same. Chris likes to Story of the World(history) crafts so we'll probably do those. I'm looking forward to it.

Still hanging in there.

I'm so thirsty, lol. Nicky has gotten over it. Kids are so easy to please. He's nursing more but is getting more water all the same. I'm dying over here because I'm so stubborn.

Nicky had a good day at the dentist! He's such a big boy and did so well. I'm proud of him.
Short and sweet.

Rough start!

Today wasn't easy. Nicky and I had the hardest time. My girls aren't home so they haven't started the water challenge yet. I savored my last few ounces of juice as long as I could and then moved on to....water, blah. It's just so plain. I've been avoiding it and think I may be a little dehydrated because of it. Nicky is not happy. In my mind, I thought he'd be easy. I give him water all the time. It didn't dawn on me until today that he doesn't actually drink it. He pours it out and plays with it. He also puts it into his mouth so he can spit it on people(nice, huh?). Mack and I have been....disputing(arguing about) him giving Nicky liquids other than water when he wakes at night. I suspect I'm getting less than truthful answers from Mack about what goes in the cup to...keep me quiet(read: shut me up) about the cup. He just wants to go to bed, lol. Mack now works most nights and I have more control over his cup so things will change! We had a HUGE battle tonight over water in his cup. He wanted 'oakmill' which is soy milk in Nicky speak. I told him it was all gone and gave him water. He finally settled when I gave him *my* water. His wasn't good enough some how. So far so good I guess. I'm already struggling and I'm not one day into it. I swear, I have no will power.

The challenge

I hate water. I will drink it sometimes but normally I get water for the kids and drink juice. I'll even have a soda if juice isn't available. I don't even like soda(with the exception of Blood orange Italian soda, YUM!!) but I prefer that to water. When my older kids were born, they got juice as babies because I actually listened to doctors back then. I had to teach them to like water as toddlers. I decided I didn't want to do that with Nicky so I gave him no juice as a baby but as he got older I gave him sips of mine. Bad choice, he's just as bad as the others were. So, no more juice in our house. I don't want the same thing to happen with Aaron. Nicky has decalcification of his enamel(his enamel didn't form properly while I was pregnant so he has next to none on his teeth)) and we're trying to save his adult teeth by removing as much sugar as possible from his diet. Also, it would save us money. We spend a lot on juice. So, today is our first day. I have a little juice here, I'll finish it but no more is coming into the house. Is it sad that this makes me nervous? lol My mom never pushed or even suggested water. I've never been a water drinker and this isn't my first try at this. It's probably my 25th try over the last few years. I obviously failed before, I'm hoping to have better results this time. So, off we go! Lets hope I beat my previous record at least. I've lasted a whopping 3 days in the past LOL.

Too busy to blog

I've been so busy that I've let my blog fall to the wayside. Aaron is crawling everywhere! It's hard to get anything done with speedy getting into everything. If he were just a few inches taller and a little more steady he'd give Nicky a run for his money. He's finally eating. Butternut squash and zucchini are his current favorites. It's funny how he went from thinking food was gross to scarfing down full bowls in a week's time. He's also taken to crawling around the kitchen floor in search of wayward cereal. I'll have to put the baby gate back up.

I'm really missing summer. It's barely over and I'm so sad it's gone. Today it got dark at 5pm. That is just wrong. There just aren't enough day time hours and it seems to have happened more quickly this year. On the upside we have to Y to help us through this year! In past years we got less active and were stuck inside. This year, we have lots to do. The kids are loving swimming lessons! They are learning so fast. By the end of this class, I'm confident some of them will be able to swim the length of the pool. I'm glad I finally got them in lessons. Having kids that can't swim makes me nervous.

My soap. Oh, how I love my soaps. I have many to make for the holidays. I cut 4 pounds, I'm curing another 4 and I have 8 pounds in molds. I finally got the simple swirl I wanted to try! It looks beautiful and I can't wait until it is cut. I think I'll try the more complicated method tomorrow. I'm no longer as impatient as I was so I think it will go well. My soap will have a new look!

My other ventures are going well. I'm nearly done with the birth class requirement for my doula training. I finished the semester with and A and a B. I'm a bit disappointed about that. I'm sure I'll get over it and will do better this term.

The kids are all stuck to the computer lately. Between Starfall and their math games, they seem to keep pretty busy. Chris is focusing on building. He wants to start making miniature houses(NOT doll houses). He's interested in haunted houses and log cabins. I think the older three will got houses to build for Chrismas. I'm excited to see what they create.