Tricked!

I woke up late this morning. Jacob said he turned off the alarm so I would be able to sleep in, since I got almost NO sleep the night before.

So we go about our usual routine of getting ready for the day, only Jacob also bathes Zade. I figure, hey, Jacob's already late for work and he knew it was bothering me how much Zade needed a bath, so he's being sweet. Sure.

Then we're downstairs and Jacob puts Zade's shoes on. Well, it was a little cold, and shoes would keep him warmer than just socks. After making a lunch, Jacob casually puts on Zade's jacket. Again, it's a little on the cold side, so no big deal.

Then Jacob is about to leave and offers Zade the chance to go outside. I'm all "NOoooo!! You can't do that to a kid--offer to take him outside when he just can't go." But then Jacob whips out Zade's hat from his pocket, picks up Zade and REALLY DOES TAKE HIM!!!

"WHAT??" That's all I could think. So I throw a jacket on over my pjs and follow him out. "Are you serious? But where are you going?" He just smiles and drives off.

So I figure he felt so bad for how exhausted I was yesterday that he arranged to have someone watch Zade while he was at work. Sweet!

Then about half an hour later, the time it takes for him to get to work, he calls: "Did I leave my work keys there?" Yep. He had.

Five minutes later he opens the door and has FLOWERS!! And the news that he has TODAY and TOMORROW off!!!

!!!

So tricked!

He is so sweet!

Christmas and nesting

Christmas was the best!!!

Every year is the best, of course, but this year was my first-EVER white Christmas!! FUN!!

And today, I'm totally nesting... I cleaned out the pantry and reorganized it, then moved on to reorganizing practically the whole kitchen. Then swept and mopped the floor--SERIOUSLY mopped. I was on my knees scrubbing corners and those spots that don't ever seem to come off with just a mop. And while I was down there, I noticed the cupboards are kind of gross and dirty... so I started on that. Too tired to do all of it, but I got some done.

I am just SO EXCITED to be feeling SO MUCH BETTER!! I actually had ENERGY to do stuff! Well, this morning I didn't, but I decided to do stuff anyway, and the energy just came. YAY!!!!!!!!!!! Happiness!!!! It's nice to not be helpless anymore!!! :)

Bronchitis

So I dragged myself to the doctor today. I've had a cough for more than 2 weeks and it's recently been getting worrisome.

I have bronchitis.

Last time I had it, I was in elementary school. I got sick the day after school got out for the summer and was in bed for two weeks straight.

No wonder I've been SO TIRED!! I thought it was just me being weak combined with the pregnancy. But, no, it's me pregnant, weak, AND sick.

Good thing--the medicine I have should clear it out within 5 days! YAY! I hope ALL the sickness in the house will be GONE by the time the baby comes--she's due in 3 weeks!!! Though I think I'll be late--I'm not anywhere near uncomfortable enough to be that close to being done with the pregnancy.

Thanks, Mom!

My mom came over after work today to play with Zade.

Both Jacob and I are sick = no energy to play with our now-feeling-better (YAY!) son. So his grandma came over and not only played with him, but vacuumed half the house, did the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, gave Zade a bath, and, most importantly, made Zade laugh.

THANKS, MOM!! You're the BEST!

Disaster

Dinner was a disaster today. Well, at least it was mostly edible.

I made pizza. Pizza! One of the easiest things to make.

The crust turned out flatter than anything AND took forever to bake though.

Why?

The stars weren't aligned right? Maybe today is national yeast-won't-rise day? Who knows?

Full freezer

My brilliant plans of making extra meals and freezing them is at an end. My freezer is stuffed. I made a TON of burritos (kinda like Chipotle's burritos) and a bunch of chicken roll-up thingys.

It's all good, though, I have so little energy that I don't know if I'll end up waiting for the baby before we start eating the frozen stuff.

Contractions are coming more frequently, which is good and exciting. The baby's dropped. We *might* have a name picked out, dunno quite yet... But a middle name! GASP!

I think she'll come after Christmas, but before the middle of January.... we shall see...

What do you think? Thursday, January 7, 4 pm? How's that for a random guess? 8.5 lbs... nah, I think she'll be smaller than Zade was (he was 8 lbs, 10 oz). She certainly doesn't feel as big and heavy, but there's still a few weeks to go...

muffin tin meal!

Gotta love this idea: meals in a muffin tin!

I discovered this by a link to Muffin Tin Mom at http://michellesjournalcorner.blogspot.com/search/label/Muffin%20Tin%20Monday

It sounds like SO much fun! I think I'm too lazy to actually do it now, but maybe in a few months I'll start...

I think I just have a thing for fun food... these are similar to bentos, but just not packed in a box.

Speaking of, I got my first bento-specific tools today: fun toothpicks for making mini kebabs and such. Food is WAY more fun on a stick.

Only in Texas...

Santa wears COWBOY boots!! Gotta love it. I'll post a pic of Zade on his lap as soon as I upload the pic, but I thought it was AWESOME he was wearing cowboy boots!

As soon as the house is paid off, one of the first big Christmas decorations I want to get is one of those lighted signs in the shape of Texas that says "Merry Christmas, Y'all!"

evil brownies and today's project

Here is my suspected culprit of the food poisoning:








Yeah. delicious fudge brownies. Pretty sure that's where I got sick from.





And today's project: cleaning out the pantry/food storage under the stairs. We had a moth invasion and, while most of them are gone, I needed to get rid of them completely so they NEVER return. Plus, I needed to trash the food they ruined...they mostly got into cereal and some flour. Bummer throwing the ruined food away, but it was nice knowing that I got everything on sale, so it wasn't wasting TOO much money.

I emptied the entire cupboard under the stairs, vacuumed the whole thing, including the walls and corners and crevices. Then I wiped it all down. Moved the shelves and did the same to them, even underneath (where I also found a secret message that said J <3 A).

When I put the food back, I organized it all and wiped it all down, even the tins and glass jars, just in case. Here's what the pantry looks like now:

That's one bookshelf... I have another for cooking-related pantry stuff, like flour and beans and rice and stuff.

Anyways, not QUITE finished... I'm EXHAUSTED. I mostly have stuff like paper towels left to check for moths and all that. Tomorrow I'll get to the rest.

Jacob Appreciation Day!

While Jacob is ALWAYS amazing and wonderful, I especially appreciate him today. He came home early from work to take care of Zade while I was sick with food poisoning. AND he totally cleaned out our disgusting kitchen, which had half a week's worth of dishes and ickiness. And he made dinner and got me toast. And took good care of our energetic little boy.

I LOVE JACOB! He is really the best person there is.

Photo update

Took the pumpkin I never carved and roasted it to make homemade puree for recipes:



and roasted the seeds...first time ever! They were underdone, but still delicious.

My first bento! The star-shaped rice is my FAVORITE part. And it worked! The star didn't fall apart as I was eating it or anything.

My old, icky stove. Left side is a grill that has remnants of food from everyone who's ever lived here. Only two burners, but couldn't ever use the smaller one when my most frequently used pan was on the big burner, since the burners are too close together.

My beautiful new stove (thanks, Mom and Dad!). Four burners, one warming burner. Three of the burners have multiple sizes on them. The controls aren't pressure-sensitive, they're people-sensitive, so accidentally tapping them with utensils or pots won't change it--it's gotta be a finger. Pretty cool, unless there's splattering oil in a cooking disaster (and, yes, I've ALREADY experienced that disaster, practically on the first day of the stove!).

Bread #3: Golden Pull-apart butter buns

Thanks, yet again, to King Arthur Flour, I found a magnificent recipe for Golden Pull-Apart Butter Buns.

Nice and soft. Delicious.

Well, to tell the truth, they were a bit on the, um, buttery side, but that should be expected from their names. But I have this weird thing where I don't like the taste of butter... but normal people, I'm sure, will highly appreciate this recipe.

The softness was the best part. Nice.

Bento!

New obsession: bentos!

Bento is a Japanese lunch packed in a box....umm... that's not a good description. The thing I like about bento is that they're FUN. Check out this Noah's Ark bento, with animals made out of rice: http://www.aibento.net/2009/02/02/noahs-bento-upper-deck-300/.

No way would I ever put THAT much effort into making bento, but I love the idea of making food fun, with shapes and colors and animals and fun picks and cute sauce bottles.

And, no, I'm not making the Japanese food to go in the bento, but I am pilfering the funness out of it. I made my first onigiri (rice ball) in the shape of a star out of leftover rice from today's dinner. We'll see if it holds its shape or if I need to buy short-grain rice...

Maybe I'll plan to be gone all day so I'll HAVE to make a bento for Zade and myself... or maybe I'll even make one for Jacob. :) I think I'll start with a small snack bento for church on Sunday so I can get through the 3 hours without feeling faint.

Tofu!

Today's recipe attempt was risky: tofu. Never cooked it before. I've tried it once or twice and thought it was okay, but nothing spectacular.

The recipe I used (from How to Cook Everything, by Bittman) was incredibly easy and delicious! Well, I did burn the ginger a bit, but other than that, it was great! Zade practically breathed it in--I think he especially liked the soft texture.

...

This whole trying-new-recipes thing is actually working. I groaned at the idea of cooking dinner tonight, and the thought of requesting fast food (uggggh!) even crossed my mind for a second. But when I saw that the menu I'd planned had tofu slated for today, I got excited again. I like to cook new things.

I went in maniac mode a couple weeks ago and planned recipes for the entire month of December: most of them are new recipes. I'm EXCITED about that. Hopefully that means that I'll end up cooking most of them, even as my energy seeps away in these last weeks of pregnancy.

Thai chicken

Thai chicken in the crockpot.
I must say, I'm not a big fan of meat in the crockpot... turns out rubbery most of the time. And I've never used garlic before, and hardly ever use onions. And don't get me started on red pepper flakes! Whew!

Plus, the ingredients are weird. I mean, does peanut butter and chicken and lime sound good? Sounds ick to me.

But it is good.

Amazing.

I got the chicken thighs on deep sale, so this was a really cheap, easy, and delicious meal.
And it does NOT taste like peanut butter chicken. good. It smells pretty strongly of peanut butter at the end, but Jacob was surprised when I mentioned that there was peanut butter in it.

And you can't taste the red pepper flakes (either the cheap mexican brand ones I got were flavorless or else the flavor dissipated among the mix... I'd like to think the latter) and garlic/onions aren't overwhelming.

Cooking like the pros

Today was Turkey and Biscuit pie . I tried out that thing the cooking show pros do, where you measure everything out first and put it in little bowls.

Actually worked. Especially for a new recipe I've never tried before. And since almost everything is dishwasher-able, it didn't create a load of dishes. Nice.

Fourth (or fifth) time's the charm!

I've tried to make granola bars three or four times before now, and they never turned out as bars...more of a crumbly mass.

But yesterday, I DID IT! Bars! YAY!

The secret was to use parchment paper (my new baking friend!) so I could get the bars out of the pan to cool. No stickiness, no gooey half-left-behind pieces. Perfect.

The recipe is here, at King Arthur Flour.

Turkey!

And it was just as delicious as it looks! De-meating the carcass almost makes me want to be a vegetarian, though.... gross job.''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

Bread #2: Pumpernickel

The advantage of making pumpernickel is that, since I've never had it before, I don't know if I made it wrong. So let's assume I made it right. :) It's a very dark bread, made with molasses and rye. Many recipes call for coffee beans or espresso powder (and that's why I've never had it before), but this one called for cocoa powder, so that worked.

It's a very hard, whole-grain bread (besides rye, there's whole wheat flour). I think next time I would substitute some all-purpose or bread flour to lighten the texture a little.

Attempt #1: curry

I love the Golden Curry mix: add it to chicken and veggies and, poof!, instant delicious curry.

In an attempt to both move away from pre-processed foods and an attempt to become a better cook, I tried this recipe for curried chicken crepes today.

MMM.

Turned out great. Took a picture, but, silly me, I lost both the cord to my camera AND the memory card adapter, so I can't upload pictures. Ever. Until I find the adapter.

Anyway, it's the sort of food that I probably won't be able to eat again until I'm no longer pregnant (pickiness comes with the big belly) because of the texture (coconut milk is slightly grainy), but it's DEFINITELY a make-again. In fact, the recipe made enough that I froze two servings for fast and easy meals when the baby comes.

Today, I was lazy and didn't want to make crepes, so I put it on rice instead. And I didn't have coconut milk powder, so I just used 1 3/4 c canned coconut milk and put it in with the sour cream. Worked out great. Much saucier, but that's perfect for rice.

And Zade loved it! (Jacob's at work late so hasn't tried it yet.) I think Zade ate more of it than I did. I thought the curry or coconut would throw him off, but he gobbled it up as fast as I gave it to him.

The Ultimate Update

Ah, haven't updated this blog since July. Here's the update of updates.

I've been converted.

Yes, that's right. With the help of sites like The Prudent Homemaker and Little Homestead in the City, I've decided to become as self-reliant as possible. The ULTIMATE goal is to be able to live out in the country one day, no problem, but I've got TONS of stuff to learn before I can be at that point. And most of it, I've realized, can be learned while living in suburbia, such as:

• 100% out of debt, including house, in 5 years
• Grow most of my own produce (gardening!)
• Composting
• Preserving all that food I grow: freezing, canning, etc...
• Eat a wholly unprocessed (I should say un-pre-processed) food diet: that includes homemade bread, homemade snacks/crackers/etc... MAYBE even homemade pasta, we'll see how far it goes first
• Make my own cheese..at least some types (looks really easy, but we'll see how it goes) and yogurt
• Fresh eggs from real chickens
• Energy efficiency
• Build up and use a REAL year's supply of food storage

Stuff like that. I expect to be able to chronicle some hilarious disasters as I try some of these things out. And, of course, gotta take everything one step at a time. Like the non-pre-processed foods. First, my goal is to bake one new type of bread a week for a year. 52 types. Nice. I made pita bread this week. No, they didn't puff enough to make REAL pockets, but that's okay--they were DELICIOUS anyway.

Since I'm such a beginner at gardening, I'm going to go for the square foot garden method first. I'm totally inspired by my sister-in-law's garden, which is amazing. Eventually, I'd like to transform into edible landscaping, which means you get a pretty yard and still have a garden. Nice. I'll start my garden in the spring, after I've recovered from having the baby.

Chickens will definitely be a MUCH later stage of this process... plus I have to check if it's legal here... preliminary investigation says that as long as they're not too noisy, they'd be okay. Hm.

I hate to say I want to "go green," since that's so trendy. And I don't consider myself an environmentalist. But I hate waste and, besides, the less energy you use, the more self-reliant you really can be. Most of that will happen after we've paid off the house--then we can pay cash for energy-efficient appliances and get our attic all radiant-barrier-ed or whatever we need to do.

So anyway, yeah. Going from city girl to uber-homemaker. Should be an interesting--and at times hilarious!--transformation. With lots of updates on this blog!

News!

Writing

One of my favorite authors is Shannon Hale (her best book so far: The Princess Academy).. so I read a bit of her blog, especially the bit where she interviewed another of my favorite authors, Megan Whalen Turner. Both are stay-at-home moms, both absolutely amazing and entertaining...
So, anyway, it inspired me. I am re-dedicating myself to my longtime dream of becoming a writer. Like FOR REAL. Not just as a hobby. I'm going to be published.
Which means TONS of writing. In the last week, I've written 15 pages of draft and kept a few lines more than one page. 10,000 words and I've kept 500. And that's just the first draft, which I know will need to be completely rewritten once I'm done with it.
But I'm excited. Just in the last week, I've improved my writing already... I still need lots of work, but I believe it is possible (and that belief is a HUGE hurdle to get over, so I'm excited to be beyond it...at least for today! I'm sure self-doubt will rear its head, ready for battle over and over again).
I know it's possible because I intented to just work on an outline and then write my novel for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month: November--you write a 50,000 word novel in just one month), but I couldn't stop myself from actually writing the story. It was itching to be told. Insisting. Demanding.
And that is, I believe, the key to becoming a published author, to slugging through the hard days and the I-hate-this-story days and all that.

Goals

My goals:
1. create a list of 100 things I'd like to do in my life (aka, a bucket list)
2. finish writing the CleanDance book
3. write a novel (http://www.nanowrimo.org/)
4. write 800 words a day
5. run a marathon in February
...
yeah, just stuff like that...
(Okay, I had to come up with SOMETHING for a blog post!)