Making your own baby food

I'm a cheap frugal person.  If I can (easily) do something for way cheaper, I will do it.  Since my whole adult life I've either been a student or a stay-at-home parent, so after studying and chores are done, finding ways to produce stuff for less is a good economic use of my time.  I'm not a couponer or anything, but I generally cook my own food and shop sales.

That's part of the reason why I nurse (it's so much healthier, and formula makes poop smell gross, and formula costs money, and bottles are equipment I'll have to wash, and I'm just lazy like that!) and that's why I don't buy baby food.

I was at the grocery store the other day, and I happened to walk by the baby food aisle.  Now that Mace is eating solids (and boy, is he eating!!) I buy rice cereal to mix in with stuff, but that's it.  I figure a couple dollars for a big box of ... powdered rice/oats (whatever!) ... is an okay thing to spend money on.  I can't make it myself.  But then I look at the baby food, and think, "75 cents for a baby's-fist's-sized jar of ... peas?  I can buy a whole POUND of frozen peas for a buck!!"  How hard is it to boil some peas and stick 'em in a blender?

I guess then the question is, "If you make your own baby food ... do you have to make it in small batches or something so it doesn't go bad before your baby gets around to eating it?  Jars of baby food are preserved."  Simple solution: Freeze it!  When Carmen was a baby, I read that you can put your homemade baby food into ice cube trays and freeze them.  Then when it's time to eat, you just thaw the food cubes in the microwave and feed them to your baby.  Voila!  I fill ice cube trays with pureed food, then when they're frozen I transfer them into a big plastic Ziploc bag so I can make another batch of baby food.  Easy peasy.

This is the website I use as my guide for feeding my baby.  I love it, and it gives me ideas of the new foods I can introduce to my baby and when.

Mace started eating food at the beginning of November (he was about 6.5 months old).  We started with rice cereal mixed with milk, then introduced applesauce and bananas and zucchini and whatnot.  Applesauce is easy because you can buy it in BIG jars.  Just be sure to buy applesauce that's just apples and not sugar.

Sometimes Mace wasn't a big fan of the new food I'd introduce to him.  So I'd put the new food into a bowl of applesauce-rice and feed him mostly applesauce and a little bit of the new food, then increase the amount of the new food in each spoonful until he was eating the new food without complaint.  Other times, I'll take one thawed cube of food (carrots, zucchini, sweet potato, whatever) and mix it into a big bowl of applesauce.  I figure the flavors are mild enough that he won't notice the difference, and most of his nutrition comes from milk anyway.  Supposedly.  That kid eats so much it makes me wonder how he packs it all down (but he refuses to nurse more ... he wants food and squawks for it!). :p

I love how communicative Mace is about food.  When he wakes up in the morning, I nurse him, and about 20 minutes later we all have breakfast together.  Usually Mark makes bacon and eggs (sometimes I do) and I put Mace in his high chair.  He bounces around and kicks his legs and smiles and grunts at us, and when I *finally* have his food ready, he LUNGES at the spoon and gobbles up whatever I'm feeding him.  And when he's still hungry, he grunts at me and cries.  If we're out somewhere and he's hungry and he sees us eating, he cries and reaches towards the food and growls "Rawwwrr, aaarrrgggghhhh!!!  Um-um-um-um!!" until I let him have a little taste of whatever I'm eating that is OK for him to eat (if I'm eating out, I always try to order something that contains something Mace-friendly, or I stick a banana and a spoon in my diaper bag.) and then he lets out this really cute content noise, like, "Aaaahhh, mmmm-nom."

And it kind of makes my heart burst with love for him.

One of my favorite foods to feed him is banana, because we cut the banana in half and scoop the fruit out with a spoon.  It's very self-contained and easy to do.  Some people like giving their babies solid foods in little pieces to play with in their hands and feed themselves ... but I think that's very messy, so I'd rather be a clean control freak and spoon-feed them myself.  When Mace gets teeth, I'll give him little bits of food he can chew on (like red bell peppers) that won't get all mushy and messy and gross.

Our schedule goes something like this:
Morning - nurse, breakfast
Then I try to go to the gym after he takes a brief nap
Noonish - nurse, lunch
Afternoon nurse
He takes a short nap at some point in the afternoon, either before or after the afternoon nursing, depending on when he gets cranky
Evening - nurse, dinner, bed.

Most of the time, the food is some kind of combination of vegetable cube mixed with applesauce, and half a banana.  Mace eats 1-2 bananas a day. O.o  And yet he still poops (bananas and applesauce can constipate.)

Random fact of the day: applesauce constipates (you lose a lot of the fiber when you peel apples) but apple juice helps loosen things up (because of the liquids and sugar).  Both are made of apples, but have different effects.  But if you REALLY need to help your kid empty their bowels, PRUNE JUICE.  You can either give it to them in a bottle, or mix it with baby cereal.  Rice cereal will also contribute to constipation, so you might want to switch to oat cereal.

Okay, enough about poop.

My kid sleeps from 7 to 7.  Sometimes even later.  HOW DID I GET SO LUCKY?!  And he started sleeping through the night in September, after we moved into our house and gave him his own room (instead of, you know, our closet.)

I used to wake Mace up to nurse him around 10 or 11 before I went to bed (you know how cows love to be milked in the morning and feel uncomfortable?  I HAVE SO MUCH EMPATHY FOR COWS.  YOU MEN HAVE NO IDEA.) but then there were a few nights where Mace was not interested in nursing and seemed cranky that I would wake him up in the middle of the night.  Your body adjusts to your nursing times, so now I no longer get SO uncomfortable at night right before I get to bed.

I love having a 7-month-old.  They are so much fun, and expressive, and playful, and AWESOME.  Sometimes I wish he wasn't so clingy, but the nice thing is that since he has an older sister and two cats, there are bunch of other people around to entertain him.  I just can't leave him in the same room as Carmen for a long time, because eventually she leaves and he gets lonely and upset.  He can craw, but he hasn't yet figured out how to switch ROOMS.  He'll just beeline towards a toy and stuff it in his mouth.

Well, it's either a toy or it's cat food.  NOM NOM NOM.

Apparently this is a post about hats

Okay, so now I really ought to start writing again.  Recording the memorable/everyday events of our family.  So I'm starting today.  Here goes!!

Yesterday was my mom's birthday.  I used to always tell people she was turning 21 again, but now that I'm 25, it's getting harder and harder to convince people of that. ;)

The important thing isn't that yesterday was Mom's birthday - it was that she flew to Austin to come visit us!!  She was going to come on Halloween and stay for a week, but at the last minute she decided she'd rather come later in the month.  It actually turned out really well, because Mace started crawling a few weeks ago. :)  I'm pretty sure that makes Mom's trip so much more exciting and fun, to have a crawling grandbaby. <3

We picked up Mom from the airport, then went to Mark's new job downtown, then ate dinner at the taco food truck by Mark's work (SO SO GOOD), then went over to 6th Street to look at hats at The Hat Box.  Mark has been asking me for weeks about getting a new hat from that place.  He has a coworker who, apparently, wears *amazing hats* and he got them all from The Hat Box.  Mark had a famous hat for a few years, but then we last it at Disneyland last year.  Funny coincidence: It was a hat we bought from the Indiana Jones store, and we lost it 3 years later on the Indiana Jones ride. :(

Old hat:

Carmen wearing Mark's hat!

New hat:

Mace wearing Mark's hat!  ... why do I not have any pictures of Mark in his own hats?!

We actually bought two new hats for Mark, but I only have a picture of this one.  The other one looks a bit more like the old hat.  Now I'm going to go on a hat tangent ... hats are big in Mark's family.  Sort of.  His brother, James, tends to wear hats and looks good in them.  We might get him a hat for Christmas (I doubt James will read this. phew.)  Mark's dad tends to wear fisherman hats.  But I don't have a picture of it.  Maybe some day!

I guess Mark looks really good in hats.  I'm just ... not used to them.  I don't wear hats.  Dang.  He's right.  He looks good in hats.  I should stop encouraging him to dress like a bum.  I'm such a boring t-shirt and jeans-type girl.

Jorgen's wedding, February 2011

Okay, maybe he doesn't always look great in hats.  But that doesn't stop him from always trying them on.

From our Mexico cruise in February 2010.  He tried on my cousin Emery's hat.

Taken some time in ... 2007?  One of our poor newlywed dates to DI where we bought a $35 couch.

Hm, somehow this turned into an entry about hats!  Okay!  So anyway, Mark got some nice new expensive hats last night as his Christmas present.

Today, I went to the gym in the morning to let Mom have some quiet time to get ready for the day.  All week long, Mace has been clingy and has cried (loudly!) the whole time I've been gone ... Usually the people in the gym day care try to let me work out for at least an hour if my baby is fussy, but this week has been so bad they've called me back after 20 minutes. Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday.  I had an appointment with a personal trainer last week who gave me a list of things to do, and this week I learned to immediately hit the machines fast and hard, because I'd probably only have 20 minutes to work out.  Hah! But then today, he was pretty cheerful and I got a whole hour in!  I was able to do all of the lifting I wanted to do, and I even got some time on the elliptical to read my Book Club book (The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks).  When I came back to the day care to pick my kids up (I wanted to go home and keep my mom company), Mace had just fallen asleep in the swing.  Aww~ <3

Mace took a ridiculously long nap in the afternoon, and when he finally woke up we went shopping with Mom on a Christmas quest to find an elf to do the "elf on a shelf" thing.  I hadn't really heard of this until a few years ago, when a friend of a friend posted pictures on her Livejournal of this weird cute little Christmas elf.  Apparently it's like a little gnome you hide around the house at Christmas time, and the kids get excited trying to figure out where the elf is hiding.  We couldn't find an elf, so Carmen picked out a Christmas puppy.  Close enough. ;)

Then we went to the mall to ride on the carousel and walk around.  There's a little kids' play area by the carousel and Carmen likes to go play with the little kids.  Since Mace is crawling, I set him out on the floor and let him watch the bigger kids play.  He is kind of a road block, and other moms are constantly telling their kids to watch out for the baby and be careful.  I'm not sure if I'm being helpful (now they are more aware of other people when they are playing!) or if I'm being annoying (why the eff is that weirdo mom letting her baby potentially get run over by packs of 3-year-olds?!) but I don't care if a little kid runs over Mace.  It will make up for the fact that he doesn't have a whole bunch of older siblings to maul him!  He only has Carmen!

It was really funny to watch the kids play at the mall.  They ran around in circles screaming, "AAAAUUUGGGHH IT'S THE BABY MONSTER!  HE IS GOING TO GET US!" and they would run away, as Mace smiled at them and got up on his hands and knees and rocked back and forth.  He didn't really want to go anywhere, so he just spun around in circles, watching kids and smiling, then occasionally coming over to Mom or me to gnaw on our shoes.  Oh, baby Mace, how I love you.

So .... that was our day.

And here's a picture of my mom ... she and Mace were matching today!  It was not intentional!

Don't you think she looks 21?

Wow.  Writing this was fun.  I think I'll do this more often.

Why I'm obsessed with political stuff

Everyone on Facebook has been complaining this year about how everyone else seems to be posting political stuff, and they can't wait for November 6 to pass so everyone will just shut up and go home.  It's not going to happen with me.  I'm political ALL the time.

Why?

A few years ago, one of my best friends came to me in tears because she couldn't get a job.  She was doing okay health-wise on her medication (she has epilepsy and bipolar, which cause her to be disabled when she doesn't have her meds) but here's the kicker - she could only afford her meds if she was on MEDICAID.  If she got a job (she wanted to be a phlebotomist) it would pay her just enough to lose her Medicaid benefits, but she wouldn't get good enough health insurance benefits for her to be able to afford her own medication.

Um, so I pretty much hate the Democratic party for this.  (And don't get me started on why I hate the Republican party, too!)  Keep everyone dependent on the government and spend lots of money so you can keep your power and control over the people?  It seems to me that this follows that the goal of the Democratic party would be to make everyone poor and make everyone slaves to the party/government.  YES, I understand the actual goal is social liberalism and to make sure everyone has equal rights and life is "fair" ... but ... reality?  You tend to make people poor, sick, and dependent on the government.  And you don't treat people equally - you pick and choose favorites.  Your favorites are the poor and disadvantaged and people who make bad decisions and you want everyone else to pay for it.  Great.  Thanks for forcing charity on me because obviously without your mandates I wouldn't be charitable.

It makes me see how vital a role religion and charity play in society, and why although regimes fall, religion carries on.  There is a sense of choice with charity, and you understand why you have the desire to help those who are struggling.  When you start attaching numbers to things, that sense of charity and personal responsibility and intrinsic motivation disappears.

Ugh.

Health Insurance

So Mace had his 6-month well-check at the doctor's office this morning, and as I walked into the clinic, I thought about the other patients there.

I thought about how some people who have the most expensive medical needs are those least able to pay for it.  Medical conditions can be debilitating and expensive.  It made me think about how ... I don't know ... if we want our country to thrive, if we want healthy, productive people in our society, we really need to find a way to make health care affordable and accessible for all.

How could we do that?  I hate Obamacare.  It looks like it's set to make costs skyrocket, while attempting to get everyone equal access to health care.  The free market WOULD do a great job with health care if they didn't discirminate against sick people (which they should, if they want to minimize costs and maximize profits.)  But how does it make sense to PUNISH the sick people by making them pay higher premiums?

This isn't like life insurance, where they are weighing out your probability of death in the next X number of years.  If you are a smoker or if your sister is bipolar or if your father died of a heart attack at 40, you DO have some kind of risk of dying.  But as far as health is concerned, we're ALL at risk of SOMETHING expensive catastrophic happening to us (ie. Mace's $20k fever in May. He just had a virus, but we spent 3 days in the hospital as they pumped him full of antibiotics to make sure he didn't have meningitis or something.  That sort of thing, you know, KILLS 1-month-olds.)

And with auto insurance, which everyone has to have because car accidents are EXPENSIVE (just like medical issues!), people can CHOOSE whether or not they have a car, and whether or not they drive.  With health insurance, it's like, "Hm, do I want to be alive, or not?"



I've always had really good health insurance.  Mark and I got married right after my freshman year at BYU and we had BYU health insurance, which was WAY WAY CHEAP (I thought it was expensive because we had no money.)

After Mark graduated and got a job, we had pretty decent health insurance through his employer.  His employer's health insurance was REALLY REALLY EXPENSIVE, though, because the company was small and I think someone had cancer and his daughter had some other medical issue.  So the insurance companies saw that, and saw that the company was small enough that they could charge an arm and a leg for the group's health insurance.  Or something.

Then we moved to Austin, and Mark had *amazing* health insurance.  Like, we-had-no-deductible health insurance.  I had Mace in a hospital with an epidural and it cost us $500, but if I had done it in a birthing center it would have been FREE.

Then last month, Mark got a new job (and we moved into a house, thus I haven't written in this blog AT ALL) and I had a new experience.  I got to pick out MY OWN INSURANCE PLAN.  First of all, it kind of made my brain explode ... but at the same time, it was kind of neat.

Our employer would pay up to a certain amount (say, $400) of the premium, and if the plan we chose cost more than that, we'd pay the difference and it would come out of our paycheck (before taxes, woohoo!)  I had about a dozen options to choose from, and then I found three plans that were similar but had different copays, deductibles, and %-after-deductible paid by the insurance companies.

I chose the one I thought would fit best for our family for the next year.  Next summer, we get to pick out a health insurance plan again for the next year.  Let's just say I hope not to get pregnant and have a baby this year. ;)


It got me thinking, wouldn't it be great if everyone had the opportunity to do the same thing with THEIR health insurance plans?  Wouldn't it be great if everyone could be a part of some kind of "group" plan (that, as far as I know, can't really discriminate against individuals) and everyone could choose what's right for them?

It kind of sounds like a voucher system.  EVERYONE would have the government pay the first $X00 of people's insurance policies (would it have to be a little more for families than for individuals?) and then we go out and pick an insurance plan we like.

The insurance companies have to charge everyone the same price for the same plan, so they better figure out how to balance their budgets and quick!!!  That way, everyone has access to health insurance and health care just like Mark has through his work, only it's through the government, but the government is still letting the free market take care of individuals.  Then, NOBODY needs Medicare/Medicaid because everyone has their basic insurance through the government.  The very basic plan (the plan that is completely paid for by the government's subsidy) would cover basic wellness/preventative and emergency/catastrophic and prescriptions.  But, seriously, let the insurance companies design the plans themselves and offer them to people.  They'll find a way to do it effectively.  The people will make sure of that (by not buying the crappy plans and switching the next year when they get to pick a new plan!)

This plan is about 1000x smaller than the behemoth they pushed through Congress, and encroaches on WAY fewer rights.  Because people need health care to be healthy and productive, and frankly, not everyone can afford it, although our nation can afford it for them.  The key is that everyone is treated equally, though ... rich and poor receive the same subsidy, but the rich can buy the fancy insurance if they want and pay the extra $1000 for it.

Spoilers!!

A few days ago, Mark came home from work super-giddy and told me what he weighed when he got on the scale when he got to the gym that morning.  I really wish I could remember how much he weighed when we got married ... I think he's close!  So far (in just a month) he has lost 20 pounds.  That's even more than our cats!!  (Our cats are fat.)  I want to take a picture of Mark holding Tiber, with the caption of, "This is how much Mark weighed a month ago!"

I, on the other hand, lost 7 pounds in a week (how is it possible? I don't know. Going off carbs is crazy!) and then realized I shouldn't be losing weight that fast because I'm nursing.  I was supposed to be eating fruit, too.  And if you've got sugar in your body, it has energy it can access before your body starts shedding fat so even eating fruit will slow your weight loss.  At least that's what I suspect.  So now I'm down just over 10 pounds.  So between the two of us, we've almost lost a Carmen.  In a month.

I've been pretty bad the past few days, though.  I've been craving chocolate so I had several pieces of chocolate cake at a friend's house last night, and today I've been sneaking a bunch of Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies.  I promise I'll get back on track tomorrow!

One thing that was really fun about that first week was stepping on the scale in the evening and weighing less than I weighed in the morning, even though I had been eating all day long and never felt hungry.  Gee, funny, you eat foods that keep you full and you don't get hungry as often.  Hm!!

It makes me think that maybe that, instead of simply writing up how many calories are in a food item, if they wrote it in something like calories per hour.  You digest carbs faster than whole grains/proteins/fats, so although fat has more calories per weight, I bet if you ate more fat during the day you'd eat fewer calories overall.  Carbs last, like, three hours, then you're hungry again.  They also spike your blood sugar and make you even hungrier.  I noticed I could be not-very-hungry, then I'll have something with sugar in it, and suddenly my body will start craving more sugar.

Yup, here's a little something describing cravings vs. hunger.  This is why you have to do Phase I of the South Beach Diet.  It's what kicks the carb cravings.  The first 3 days are the hardest.
http://www.southbeachdiet.com/diet/hunger-versus-cravings


I've decided I also need to come up with some sort of official "goal" for my weight loss, instead of, "The doctor told Mark he needs to lose weight, so what the heck I'll do it with him because I'm fat."

Here goes, once it's public and people know they've got something to hold you to ... right?

Starting weight: 179
Current weight: 169
Pre-Mace weight: 165
Pre-Carmen weight: 160

In my wildest, wildest dreams I'd like to be down to 140 lbs (how much I weighed when I was 16) and have a 30-inch waist or smaller.  Actually, I'd just like to have a 30-inch waist, period.  (I'm already one inch down!)  Realistically, I'd like to get down to 150 lbs, which is what I weighed when I graduated from high school.  I have clothes I've been holding onto since I got married, hoping I'll be able to fit into them comfortably again.  (Problem is, many of them aren't nursing-friendly so I've hardly worn them since 2008.  BUT I LOVE THOSE SHIRTS SO MUCH I CAN NOT GET RID OF THEM BECAUSE I SWEAR I WILL WEAR THEM AGAIN SOME DAY! **stubborn**)

It's kind of embarrassing thinking those are my weight goals, because I have friends who are like 140 or 145 and want to get down to 120 and I'm thinking, "How is that even POSSIBLE?!  I haven't weighed that I was 13!  And I was not fat then!"  (Back then, I'm pretty sure was pure muscle, and I could probably beat the crap out of you, and I rode my bike everywhere.)

And there's your way too much personal information about Kamis for the day.  Now I will be super-embarrassed if Christmas comes around and I'm still 160something. "You did so great in August, then you gave up?!"

Feeling hormonal >:( (probably from breastfeeding)

I want to complain for a few minutes.

I haven't been blogging lately because I'm too tired and don't have the brainpower to write something coherent.  I haven't even written in my own personal journal.  I'm exhausted.  The baby keeps me up a lot at night, and I keep getting sick with colds.  Blech!  All I want to do is catch a nap.

Nursing hormones are not so much fun.  Especially not in the summer.  Did you know you can get hot flashes from nursing?  I don't remember getting hot flashes when nursing Carmen!  That's it; I'm having my next kid in October.  I don't care if I spend the summer being pregnant.  Maybe I'll change my mind if I spend a summer being pregnant. ;)  But, dang it, Texas, why do you have to be so hot?!  Heat rash is not fun.

I also discovered where the huge bruises on my thighs came from ... while I was lugging Mace's car seat up the two flights of stairs to get to our apartment.  The car seat goes bonk, bonk, bonk on my leg on each step as I lug a car seat, diaper bag, and multiple bags of groceries up to our apartment.  Ugh, and I wonder why I don't try to get out more?

Our lease is up September 30, so in a few weeks I can start looking for a house to rent!  Mark wants to stay within the ward boundaries.  I can't start looking yet because they won't let you turn in an application until 30 days before your desired move-in date.  I don't want to pay double rent ... but rent and a half would be okay with me.  It kind of gives me heartburn to think about the fact that we have to turn in a 60-day move-out notice, but can't give a 60-day move-IN notice!  Augh, moving is such a pain!

BUT THIS APARTMENT IS SO SMALL AND CLAUSTROPHOBIC AND ON THE THIRD FLOOR AUGH I WANT OUT.  How have I survived here for the past year?!  Some day (soon!) I will be able to live in a house ... with a yard ... and possibly trees ... and Carmen can play outside while I am inside with the baby ... you can't exactly send your kid outside to play when you live in an apartment complex.  The porch is not the same.  Waaah.  *melts into puddle of not-wanting-to-do-anythingness*

I bet it's just the hormones driving me crazy now. ;)

Mace, I love you, but I am so looking forward to when you stop eating every 3 hours.  I hate how guilty the breastfeeding advocates make me feel when they talk about exclusive breastfeeding.  I am so jealous of the other people in my Bradley class who DO do the whole feed-your-kid-formula-and-even-put-rice-cereal-in-their-bottle-so-they'll-sleep-longer thing.  Oh my heck I wish I could get more than 4 hours of sleep at a time.  But I can't get over that mental block of, "It's so selfish to feed your kid formula just so you can get some sleep."

But let's see ... do I want to be a breastfeeding HOMICIDAL MANIAC because I don't get enough sleep, or a major disappointment to the World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics because I'm one of the 80-someodd-percent of non-exclusively breastfeeding moms?

It's a bit like saying, "Oh, man, we are SO DISAPPOINTED because so few people are on 100% whole-foods diets."  Like, dang, I had a bowl of cereal and blew it.

I mean, like ... this New York breastfeeding thing really ticks me off.  The whole Baby Friendly initiative thing ticks me off.  Locking away formula and pacifiers?  Seriously?  Lecturing moms about bottle feeding and pacifier use?  (Men, if you don't know what breastfeeding feels like, have someone pinch and twist your nipples then rub them with sandpaper then attach a vacuum to them.  And do that for about 20 minutes at a time.  When your nipples are bleeding, keep doing it for a while.  Then imagine what it would feel like having someone lecture you about how if you don't let someone continue to sandpaper and vacuum-suck your twisted nipples, you will have all of these problems.)

And did you know that pacifier use can actually enhance breastfeeding?  When your nipples are sore in those early days of breastfeeding, you really wish your baby would only use your boobs for food and not for comfort.

You know an easier way to get women to successfully breastfeed?  DON'T SEND THEM HOME WITH FORMULA AND COUPONS FOR FORMULA.  Problem solved.  Send them home with 20 bucks.  Then they can use that money to either buy formula or lactation tea.  Freedom of choice, ain't it great?!  Or if you're going to send them home with presents and not cash, give 'em a fruit basket (oh, wait, you're telling me hospitals don't send women home with free formula just 'cause they're nice???)

Also, next time I have a baby, I'm sneaking in my own pacifiers.  When the nurse came in to lecture me on pacifier use and breastfeeding, I wanted to tell her to can it and just give me the d*mn pacifier.  My boobs hurt and I'm not suddenly going to give my baby formula.  And if I did, IT'S MY CHOICE.

Bread!!!

We have a bread machine at home, and we went through this awesome phase where we made our own bread and pizza dough.  We still make our own pizza dough, but we gave up on baking bread.

Why?

The loaves are too tall, yet short (length-wise).  You can't make a sandwich and fit it in a sandwich bag.  We tried cutting the pieces of bread in half and stuff, but it just looks lame and is kind of obnoxious and the bread is all crumbly and ... frankly, I felt too lazy to figure out how to work it.  Maybe I could just put the bread machine on a "dough" setting, then bake the bread in the oven in a longer pan, so the loaves could be shaped a bit more like what you get at the grocery store.

When we lived in American Fork, there was a Sarah Lee bakery outlet down the street (you can buy older loaves of bread at a huuuuge discount) and it didn't seem worth it to me to bake my own bread when it was still really cheap to buy it at the outlet.

Then there's also Costco, where you can get tasty bread cheaper than the grocery store.  And we weren't students any more, so I didn't feel the need to scrimp on bread.

Then one day, something happened.  My brother introduced me to Dave's Amazing Bread (or something along those lines) at Costco.  It was like this super-heavy loaf of bread full of nuts and seeds and what have you and IT TASTED AMAZING.  When I wanted to feel really special, I would go out and buy that bread and eat a sandwich and feel like I was in heaven.  Then we moved to Austin and they didn't sell Dave's bread (or pepperoni. It was a sad day in the Dewey household.)

Anyway, I had to find a *new* kind of bread to eat.  I had been watching my food documentaries and whatnot and decided I wasn't going to buy white bread any more (it's a start.)  I bought some Orowheat, then decided that Costco's whole grain wheat bread was good enough.  One day, I noticed this organic-natural-sprouted-wheat-something bread and decided to try it.  It was soft and tasty and the best bread I've ever eaten (as far as non-artisan bakery-type bread goes, anyway).  But it was $7 for two loaves, and the loaves weren't as big as the Kirkland (Costco) brand bread, so I didn't buy it very often.

In my church, I'm an "Activity Days Leader".  That means that twice a month, I do an activity with the 10- and 11-year-old girls in our ward (congregation.)  Last month, a woman in our ward did a bread baking activity with our girls at her house.  It was fun, and I made pizza rolls with the dough I brought home.  We used regular flour and ground our own flour with her wheat grinder and she even let me use some of her flax seed meal ... and it just seemed so healthy.  And we had fun kneading our bread and letting it rise.  (Thanks, Katharine, you'll probably never read this but I love you.)

After thinking about all of the weird preservatives and additives in today's food, I decided to compare the ingredient labels of the bread I buy and the bread I like.  The $3.50/loaf bread had ingredients like, "Flour, wheat flour, sunflower seeds, oil." and I thought YES THAT IS WHAT BREAD SHOULD BE MADE FROM.  Then I pulled out my Costco bread and had my heart ripped in pieces.  Luckily, all of the difficult-to-identify ingredients were after a "contains less than 2% of the following..." label.  Where would I even find "cultured corn syrup solids" if I wanted to put it into my bread?

I felt torn.  I want to be frugal, I want to be healthy, I felt like I was being pretty healthy buying whole grain bread from Costco.  None of the regular grocery store bread looked appetizing, anyway, and it wasn't any cheaper.  But am I seriously going to be one of those people who buys organic $3.50-a-loaf bread?  Next thing I know I'm going to be buying $8 watermelons at Whole Foods!  So, what, am I frugal or cheap or am I turning into some kind of organics-obsessed hippy?  (By the way, my father-in-law's granola is very tasty.)

Maybe I should be baking my own bread again.  Maybe I should suck it up and put forth the extra effort to bake bread in a pan shaped the way I want it (because it's so hard to press the "dough" button on the bread machine, then transfer it to a different bread pan and bake it in the oven.)  But, oh, it's going to be so hard to perfect a recipe I like.

At any rate, I went to Sprouts (the equivalent of Utah's Sunflower Markets ... now they're owned by the same company!) and bought a bunch of bags of seeds and nuts from the bulk section (why don't more grocery stores have bulk sections?  We need Winco in Texas!!) and a bag of flax seed meal.  Some day, when I feel brave, I am going to attempt to make my own version of that natural organic whole grain bread.  I might let you know how it goes. ;)

There's my inner monologue for the day.

Discombobulated thoughts about the WHO

http://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/exclusive_breastfeeding/en/

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/04/moms-need-more-support-to-breastfeed-exclusively/

http://healthland.time.com/2012/04/30/bring-back-the-binky-study-finds-pacifiers-actually-boost-breast-feeding/?xid=gonewsedit


I've been spending the last few days trying to catch up on sleep (Mace is due for his growth spurt, so he's eating all the time ...) so we'll see if I can manage to get this written up without coming across as too harsh/opinionated/judgmental/crazy/etc.  I'm just going to write and post and not think about it any more.  Maybe I'll write more in the future.


The World Health Organization recommends that babies be exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months of life, and that breastfeeding continues for the first year of life, up to two years and beyond.

That sounds great.  It's certainly a noble goal.

But honestly, is it realistic?  At all?  Are they REALLY surprised and disheartened that by 6 months, only 14% of babies have been exclusively breastfed?  To me, that actually sounds like a really high number.  In my last post, I calculated that you could spend 40 hours a month breastfeeding.  Honestly, how many women want to do that?  Exclusively?

I feel like the WHO is so caught up in the "exclusive breastfeeding" thing that they fail to take into account the women who are "mostly breastfeeding" or "still breastfeeding".  Their babies are still getting the benefits of breastfeeding, although maybe not as much (or something; I haven't done an extensive study on it.)  I think it makes women feel overwhelmed (it's overwhelming for me, a stay-at-home-mom) and puts a lot of pressure and guilt and whatnot on women who supplement with formula.

I have unopened formula in my pantry.  Just in case.  And I have some pumped milk in the freezer.  Sometimes I'm afraid to think about the formula, because I've got the WHO in the back of my head chanting, "Exclusive breastfeeding!  Exclusive breastfeeding!  No formula!" and the constant refrain from the crazies in the online breastfeeding world going, "Formula undermines breastfeeding!  Formula companies are El Diablo!!"  Okay, no, I don't want to go into the politics of Nestle here, thank you.


Yes, 7 weeks in, Mace is exclusively breastfed, and has taken a few bottles of expressed milk.  I don't want to mess with formula yet because that means I'll have to reheat the filtered water from the fridge, since I think Austin tap water tastes like dirt and I don't think it would be fair to make Mace drink it. =p  I'm too lazy for that.  If Mace won't eat right before I want to go somewhere without him, I'll express what I've got into a bottle (for my own comfort!) and Mark can give it to Mace to tide him over.  I have yet to need to be away for more than 3 hours yet.  But!!  Formula is not evil.  And ZOMG the WHO is going to be so disappointed in me if I ever feed Mace formula because then I'll be part of that 86% of women who don't exclusively breastfeed their kid for 6 months.  Big. Freaking. Whoop.

Then we come across this article, which states, "Moms need more support to breastfeed exclusively".

I think the best way to express my reaction is, "Holy/Good/What the #*$*??"  As if being a mom wasn't hard enough, now we need more "support" to breastfeed exclusively.  Like, it shouldn't be our choice what we do, we need even more pressure to meet this ideal.  Then you look at the comments and everyone says, "Mothers need longer paid maternity leave.  Mothers need more support for pumping." ... Sure, it's great we want to set up all of these support systems for moms, but these all look like support systems for working moms.

I feel jealous.  I feel left out.  I feel discriminated against.  I sacrifice financially to stay at home, because I feel like I'll do a better job raising my own kids than a day care would.  I like having control over my kids' lives and influences.  I like teaching them.  But ... where's my handout?  Where's my paid maternity leave?  Oh, wait - I don't have a paid job.  Working moms get child care tax credits.  I'm my own child care, and I get nothing.  I can go back to the gym after 6 weeks of leave, but I don't get paid for anything.  Ever.

We all feel like we're sacrificing.  We all want more support.  But honestly, it kind of ticks me off that everyone is up in arms about working women and health care and maternity issues and stay-at-home moms get glossed over.  Because we're privileged or something, and we don't have to sacrifice, and we don't know what sacrifice is, and we don't understand the economic issues working moms face.  You know, if I just lived with my husband and we weren't married, I could collect food stamps and my kid could get discounts for preschool.  But because I happen to be married to someone who earns a decent amount of money, I pay taxes and get nothing (beyond what everyone gets.)

...

I don't know what any of that has to do with the WHO and breastfeeding, but I had to get that off my chest.  I'm doing fine on my own, I think, but given the chance, I'd love to hop on the gimme gravy train.  The least they could do is give the same benefits to both working and stay-at-home moms.  Instead of giving "child care" tax credits, give the same tax credits to everyone so we can spend it on day care, or dance classes, or preschool, or whatever!  Why does the government feel the need to discriminate and push women into the workforce and push couples away from having children?

I guess I'll have to save my thoughts on pacifiers for later.  I already spoiled it with the link at the beginning of my post. ;)

Okay, posting without proofreading ... GO!
(Sorry if I've offended someone with my ranting.)

Thoughts on breastfeeding

Excuse currently in my head: I can't write this post because I haven't posted Mace's birth story yet!  It makes no sense to suddenly write a post about nursing because you barely even blogged about being pregnant and giving birth to a baby boy!
And this is what I say: You know what, self?  It doesn't matter!  Just write!

Disclaimer: This post is probably going to be TMI for some people, so if you don't want to hear about babies and boobs and nursing and leaking and body issues, stop reading now.
/disclaimer


I have a love/hate relationship with breastfeeding.  I nursed Carmen until she was 20 months old, and Mace is so far exclusively breastfed.  It's just so much easier to pop a boob into a baby's mouth than it is to pull out a bottle and mess with measuring out water and formula and making it not too cold.  The tap water here tastes like dirt so I'd have to use cold, filtered fridge water, and I'd have to warm it up to a bearable temperature and ... I get tired just thinking about it!

Thoughts on breastfeeding in general:
Pros:

• It's so easy and convenient!  You know your baby is going to be hungry every 2-3 hours (more often if it's growth spurt time) and since you're the mom, you're there, and you can feed them without having to prepare anything.
• Breastfeeding helps your waist get smaller faster, because the hormones associated with breastfeeding help your uterus clamp down to its original size.  (con: there is a LOT of cramping in those early days of breastfeeding.)
• You get to eat more food and supposedly you lose weight (and burn thigh fat?) more quickly.
• Your kids are healthier, since your antibodies strengthen their immune system.
• Breastmilk is superfood.  Seriously, it does everything.  My pediatrician told me to put it in Mace's eyes to open up his tear ducts.  It helps clear up baby acne.  Colostrum (and possibly breastmilk?) can be used in the early days to soothe sore and cracked nipples.  It cures ear infections, too.
• Breastmilk baby poop is a million times better than formula poop.  It smells better and just seems cleaner ...
• Babies are less picky when they start eating real food, since your milk tastes different depending on what you've eaten.  Unfortunately, most of my milk is made of chocolate, so I'm a little screwed in the variety department ...
• You get snuggles!
• I want to repeat "it's so easy and convenient and cheap and eco-friendly!" about 21938873 times.  Why spend money on something inferior?  STICK IT TO THE MAN. etc etc.

Cons:

• Let's face it.  It's a little gross.
• I leak like crazy the entire time my kids are breastfeeding, so I have to use nursing pads.  It feels kind of unsexy.  But, pro!  They are super-cute cloth nursing pads from WeeEssentials!
• Every time I get dressed, I have to think about accessibility, and whether or not my particular combination of nursing pads, bra, and shirt make my boobs look funny.  It depends on the thickness of the shirt/bra.
• Mace was very tongue tied.  That's when the frenulum (the thingy under your tongue that attaches your tongue to the bottom of your mouth) is attached all the way to the tip of the tongue and you can't stick your tongue out at all.  It makes it hard for a baby to latch on and suck because they need to stick their tongue out slightly to ... well ... make it all work.  Go Google it. =p  We went to the ear, nose, and throat doctor in May and he performed a frenectomy (fren = frenulum, ectomy = cutting out) so his tongue could be free and things are a lot easier now!
• Making milk takes work.  Work takes energy.  Energy creates heat.  I am very, very hot when I nurse (haha, I said I'm hot!)  I have recently discovered clinical strength deodorant.  IT IS AMAZING WHY DID I NOT USE THIS WITH CARMEN.  But feeling like you can boil water on your chest when it's also 90-someodd degrees outside?  Not fun!!
• If my boobs think it's time to nurse and my baby doesn't, it's uncomfortable.  Nursing and hormones in general are uncomfortable.
• Nursing hormones kill your libido.
• You never quite feel like your body is back to normal.
• It's hard to sleep on your stomach at night.  Too much pressure on chest = uncomfortable and leaky.
• My mother gives me dirty looks when I'm nursing at home without a cover and my brother is in the house.  I'm sorry if it makes him uncomfortable ... but I'm his sister and I'm feeding my baby and just because I have boobs ... I'm his sister!!!  Maybe I'm a shameless dirty classless hussy, but I think people need to freak out less about nakedness.  Hello, locker rooms?  And who hasn't seen some family member streak across the house in a towel at one point or another?  It's not sexual.  It's not an everyday occurrence, either, but still ... chill out.  (Maybe it's because I had college roommates who would lounge around the room in a towel/underwear for a little while after showering or before bed ...)
• It's a huuuuuuge time commitment.  Feeding a baby always is.  But think of this: Breastfed babies will eat every 2-3 hours for the first 6 months of life (because that's how long it takes to digest) until they start eating solid foods (ie. non-breastmilk).  A feeding usually lasts anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes.  Let's say a baby eats for 10 minutes every 3 hours.  That's 80 minutes a day.  If there are 30 days in a month, that's 240 minutes of nursing a month, which is 40 hours.  Every month, you spend a whole work week nursing your baby.

Thoughts in general:

• Yes, I'm one of those people who nurses in public.  I feel uncomfortable with the idea of other people staring at my boobs, so if I'm in a place where there are a lot of people (such as the outlet malls, Target, a restaurant, a party/wedding) I like to cover up.  I'll also generally try to cover up if I'm around unmarried male friends; but if I'm at home, or with family, or with female friends, or in an un-busy place, or I'm at the beach ... I may or may not cover up and people can choose not to stare because I'm not drawing attention to myself.  I'm not exactly sure how nursing on a busy public beach is different from nursing at a busy Target, but they're psychologically different to me when it comes to feeling like I'm an exhibitionist while nursing.
• I love my nursing cover (got the black one from Udder Covers).  The stiff band around the neck goes out enough that I can look down and see what's going on but nobody else has to stare at my nipples while Mace and I tussle over whether or not he's going to start eating yet.  He's light enough that I can carry him around with one arm and walk around and window shop.  One time, Mark and I were at the store and I nursed Mace the whole time while Mark pushed the shopping cart.  IT WAS AWESOME.  I was thrilled not to have to sit down and feed Mace, and not feel awkward by walking around the store half-exposed.
• All of my complaints about nursing seem kind of superficial and selfish.  I mean, come on, "nursing makes me feel less sexy"?  The convenience and lifetime benefits of nursing far outweigh a few months of temporary discomfort and self-consciousness.
• I will write about the World Health Organization (WHO) and their breastfeeding recommendations some other time.  I have a lot of thoughts on the subject.  Frankly, I think they're kind of obnoxious in the way they present their goals.
  http://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/exclusive_breastfeeding/en/
  And this article does a pretty good job to summarize how I feel:
  http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/04/moms-need-more-support-to-breastfeed-exclusively/
  
  But the phrase "more support" sounds like mothers need their hands held and to be pushed and prodded into exclusive breastfeeding.  That sounds kind of coercive and forceful and makes me feel uncomfortable ... like, what, you're going to guilt mothers into exclusively breastfeeding?  Yeah, like that's gonna work.  Can't we give moms props for trying, and keeping with it, and for continuing to nurse at a 6 months or a year even if the kid's been fed a couple bottles of formula?  Because it's not like the world's moms aren't nursing at all.  They're just (gasp!) using a product that's available to make it so they can go out for more than 3 hours without having to pump for it.

I'm sure there's plenty more I think about the subject, but that's all I've got for now. ;)

Crazy dreams

I've always had crazy, vivid dreams.  Not every night, of course, but it seemed like I had more to talk about than most.  Then yesterday, I was in my Bradley Method (child birthing) class and we were practicing visualization.  I think visualization is a kind of silly and it makes me feel awkward, but I tried to humble myself and do it anyway.

It was okay.

Our instructor told us something like, when you're pregnant (or actually when you're giving birth), your hormones make you more receptive to things like visualization and you're more creative or something.  I can kind of see that ... while you're in labor, visualization of those things that helps set you apart from the pain.  I bet it's a really useful tool for some women.

Anyway, this morning after I woke up, I realized I've been having even CRAZIER dreams than usual for the past few months.  I don't remember them all, but they're as exciting as movies and sometimes they stress me out.

A few nights ago, I dreamed that Mark couldn't find his swimsuit or it was dirty or something, so he borrowed my teal one-piece swimsuit and wore it around.  IT WAS SO DISTURBING.  Men should not wear one-piece swimsuits.  In my dreams, they are as creepy as Speedos.  When I told Mark about it, he was like, "Hm, so now dream Mark is not doing evil things to you, just embarrassing you."  Is this a good sign?  I dunno. :)

Then last night, I had this CRAZY EPIC WEIRD DREAM.

Get this.  It starts out with we're getting attacked by these giant ... I don't know.  Transformers robots?  Suddenly a place will get demolished by this thing that looks a bit like a giant gear or the bottom of those track-thingies on tanks.  Later I find out that Russia has declared war on us.  Even later, I find out the REASON why Russia has declared war on us is because of this reality TV show we recently came out with called, "Meet the Blogoviches" (but Blagojevich was American; this makes no sense!) and the Russian mafia wanted to destroy all evidence of the series.  I was confused, because it was all out on the Internet and the existence of BitTorrent (at the very least) means it can never be eradicated.

There's a book series by Patrick Rothfuss that I started reading a month ago that has these people called the Chandrian who are trying to remain secret and fairy-tale-esque who come and destroy people who get too close to finding stuff out about them.

So we're going to war with Russia, which I think is sad because apparently half of my "best friends" have immigrated from Russia (I think I might have about a dozen Russian friends IRL?) but we're at war now.  Apparently The Joker (the one from the animated series, only with green skin) was our big military leader and he had some stupid name like "Mr. Man" and he had this "military strategy book" that he used called "The Book of Counted Shadows" (something from Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series - by the way, I stopped at book 3 and don't miss it) ... and because the first edition of the book was in Japanese (what?) apparently Rurouni Kenshin was going to fight for us (uh, yay Samurai assassins?).  And suddenly this Japanese anime music I haven't heard in about 7 years starts playing.

Then we go back to our homes, and apparently I live in a town where everyone floats around on inner tubes in a lazy river (like Schlitterbahn?) and everyone looks like they're under 25.  And everyone swims around naked.  Then Mark and I went to my old piano teacher's house in Ahwatukee (we stayed with her for a few nights last January when we attended a Renai's wedding) with an ugly middle school teacher (she has Princess Vespa's old nose - yes, from Spaceballs) who teaches trampoline jumping.  Apparently the place is safe from Russian attacks, or that's where the military meets to defeat Russia, or ... something.


AND THAT WAS IT.

I'm pretty sure this dream says a lot about me.  At least my teeth didn't fall out.

What I've been up to ...

When I was 16, I picked up cross stitching as a creative hobby.  I'm not exactly sure why I did it, but I've done approximately a bajillion cross stitches since then.  It's funny that I can look at a site with a bunch of counted cross stitch kits and I can be like, "Did that one, did that one, did that one ..." and I've got these serious-looking callouses on my fingertips that prove my studliness.

This is one I started in February:

Interesting ... the photo looks more impressive than the cross stitch itself!  I didn't realize the water on the bottom is actually starting to look like ... water.

It's been a while since I've actually finished a cross stitch.  Maybe I'm lying.  Maybe I'm only thinking that because I had several cross stitches I hadn't done the finishing touches on and I've been working on finishing those instead.  Several weeks ago, I pulled all of my mostly finished cross stitches out of the closet and bought frames for them.  Now I have more of my handiwork hanging around the house. :)  I guess I ought to take photos of them and post them here or something.  Unfortunately, two are in Camren's room and she's sleeping right now.  I bought a puppy cross stitch in November to make for her because she looooooooves puppies.

Here are a few of the BIG cross stitches I've finished in the past couple of years:

This is a Greg Olsen painting I worked on while finishing up the Finance Jr. Core at BYU in 2008:

I tend to fidget nervously when listening to lectures, so I would cross stitch to stop myself from drawing hearts and stars all over the margins of my notebook.

And this is a cross stitch I did while taking my last 2 classes at BYU:

I'm a sucker for bright, colorful stuff.

I ought to take pictures of some more of my cross stitches before I send them off to people.  I made a cross stitch for my father-in-law last year and forgot I wanted to send it to him until I found it in my pile of cross stitches when I decided to frame everything ... oops!  Don't tell him.  It's still gonna be a surprise. ;)

At least *WE* think we're hilarious

So I'm in Sammamish visiting my family right now and I've been having a great time.

In fact, I'm going to tell you a story.

My sister and I did this today while using the two upstairs computers, and I think we're hilarious.  If you don't get it, don't give up.  Read on, and maybe gain a little insight into our family's sense of humor ...

Several weeks ago, my friend Jorgen introduced our family to a British sitcom called The IT Crowd.  Mark and I had started our free month of Netflix and were looking for a new show to watch.  I've got to say ... we love it.  We're engineer types, so the environment and the humor REALLY click with us.  "Hello, IT, have you tried turning it off and turning it back on again? ... are you sure it's plugged in?"  Often times, I can watch things once and be satisfied.  I don't have to watch it again.  This show, though, I think I will actually buy on DVD so I can watch it repeatedly.

I told my sister about it and now I've got her into watching it.  Unfortunately, only seasons 1 and 4 are currently available on Netflix so it will be a while before I can get Marissa to finish off the whole series ...

A few fantastic scenes from the show are in the second episode where they have a NEW (and shiny!) EMERGENCY RESPONSE SYSTEM with an easy-to-remember number with a handy jingle ...

I can't embed the video, but here's a link so you can watch it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab8GtuPdrUQ

I think it's ridiculously hilarious.  In fact, I have the jingle memorized: 01189998819991197253.  When I sing it a few times, Carmen starts dancing around the house singing the "Nine nine nine!!!" part of the song.  That girl is going to get voice lessons and become a Broadway star some day.  Srsly.  Does your 22-month-old sing on pitch?

Later in the series, there's a social networking site called "FriendFace" (obviously Facebook) and there's a scene where the three main characters are sitting on their computers in the office FriendFacing each other instead of having real conversations.  You don't know what they're saying to each other, but they're laughing and saying things like, "Oh, that was SUCH a Moss comment!  Ha ha ha!"

***Anywho***


Does anyone read Snide Remarks?  I first heard of him when someone showed me his fake 'Titanic' screenplay.  This has since been followed up by a rejected 'Twilight' screenplay and a few other things.  He offered some interesting insights on gay marriage, and it got me thinking I'd like to read more of this guy so I added him to my RSS feed on Google Reader.  Now I've realized he also does movie reviews and has his own blog, which is all updated more often than just his "Snide Remarks" column.  Click, click, click, RSS, RSS, RSS, check, check, check!

Last week, he posted a Snide Remarks column mocking one of my favorite songs to work out to at the gym.

(Frankly, I never thought of this song as rap ... it's not, is it?  Isn't it hip hop or something?)
This song is my favorite part of Zumba.  HECK YES.  This song and Usher's "DJ's Got Us Falling In Love" are the greatest feel-good songs to work out to at the gym.  And it makes me feel like a total dork.  But I'm not in high school any more, so I can be a dork and love it, right?!  I also make Carmen rock out and dance with me in the car when these songs come on the radio.

PUT YO' HANDS UP.

Anyway.  So Eric Snider made fun of this song.
"This is perplexing and perhaps even frightening. Why wouldn't the club be able to handle him? Is he wired with explosives? ... What is it he plans to do that he thinks is going to test the club's limits? Is he accompanied by a troupe of circus lions? Is he currently on fire, or in imminent risk of being on fire?"

I don't know why this article had me in giggling fits, but it did.


Today, I was on the computer in the office and Marissa was on the computer in the hall.  Marissa and I were recently sharing our plans for the evening (she's going to someone's house for a game night; I'm staying home and making s'mores with Dad if it decides to stop raining) ... and then I got a notification on Facebook saying my sister had written on my wall.  Uhh, aren't we 10 feet away from each other?

This is what happened:

So maybe it makes a little more sense now, if you know of our love for The IT Crowd and Eric Snider.

I'm glad we're related.  I get the feeling most other people would think we're just weird ...

How do you pick a parking spot?

Different people have different ways of selecting their parking spots.  Many people like to try to park close to the building so they don't have to walk very much.  They're the kind of people who circle parking lots like vultures.  Other people park far away so they can walk farther and be buff.  Some people take the first spot they can find and call it good.

When I was growing up, my Mom would search for a spot near the entrance and call it "Grandma's Way" when it worked ... something along the lines of "Grandma always found a close parking spot!"  I used to look down the aisles to see if there was a close parking spot that was easy to get to.  A friend pointed out that when looking for parking, don't look at the cars - look to see if there's a shadow under the parking spot.  That way, you can spot small cars parked in a space before you actually see them.  (Have you ever had that experience where you thought there was an open spot, but it turns out it was just a little car parked between two huge ones?  So embarrassing/annoying!)

Since Carmen was born, though, I discovered my definition of a "good" parking spot has changed.  It's not due to the space's proximity to the store entrance.  It's the space's proximity to the cart return.

Just think about it - you've got an infant in a car seat that you have to drag around (yes, babywearing is awesome, but it's STILL not super-easy to push around a shopping cart with your babe wrapped on you.  They have to be in a car seat anyway, so why not leave 'em in there when you go shopping?) ... and then when you get back to the car, you've got two options - put your child in the car and take the shopping cart back, or take the shopping cart back and carry your child back to the car.

(I remember the story from a few years ago about the mom who was practically arrested for leaving her baby in the car for a minute while she watched her older child give money to one of those Salvation Army Santas outside a Wal-Mart.  I was paranoid that if I left my child anything beyond arm's length for more than 30 seconds, something horrible would happen.  Post-partum depression is insanity.)

ANYWAY.  I don't care how far away I am from the entrance to the store.  I take the first parking spot I find that is within a few spaces of the cart return.  That way, when I'm done shopping I can easily unload all of my loot and return the cart and either put Carmen in the car or carry her back with me, depending on how clingy she's feeling at that particular moment.  I figure it takes all the stress out of trying to hunt down a close parking spot and fight all the other people waiting for the cars that are backing out of their parking spaces.

Have you ever been to Costco when it's busy?  Forget about ever finding a parking spot.  You're out in the boonies, period, unless you want to drive around for 5 minutes and muscle your way into a parking spot as it opens up.  (You know, when you have to turn your blinker on and everything to let the other cars know I WAS HERE FIRST AND YOU ARE A #*%^! IF YOU TAKE THIS SPOT FROM ME.)  My stress levels are significantly lower when I decide, "Hey, I'll park way out here just as long as I'm near a cart return."

Often times, when I go grocery shopping I grab a cart out of the return and stick Carmen in it.  That way I don't have to A) carry her into the store or B) walk slowly as she toddles through the parking lot with me.  She's actually a really good walker.  She's good with keeping up with me and likes to hold my hand and rarely throws tantrums and doesn't try to get herself run over.  I love hanging out with her! <3  We'll see how things go in the future with sheep-herding a bunch of little kids through a parking lot without getting anybody killed.  Hahaha.

The Best Smoothies Ever

Back in middle school, I fell in love with Zuka Juice (which then became Jamba Juice).  I loved smoothies.  At my 15th birthday party, we tried to figure out how to make strawberry smoothies by mixing together ice cream, milk, and fresh strawberries.  It didn't work out so well - the smoothies were still pretty runny, and I was pretty sure just adding ice cubes wouldn't make the smoothies better.  When I was 16, I got my tonsils out, and my friend's mom gave me a recipe for fruit smoothies.

What?  You add FROZEN FRUIT?  That makes a lot more sense than fresh fruit and ice cubes!!

So that's the secret.  Frozen fruit.

Since then, unless I'm wanting some kind of exotic smoothie, I can't get myself to pay a premium to go to Jamba Juice and get a smoothie when I can make (a healthier!!) one at home for a fraction of the cost.  Okay, I can pay a premium to go to Jamba Juice, but nowhere else -- I'm afraid they'll add ice cream or something with lots of high fructose corn syrup to make the smoothies sweeter.  At home, I discovered I don't need to add any sugar to my smoothies to make them sweeter.  The fruit alone is good enough!

My favorite smoothie of all time was Jamba Juice's Peanut Butter Moo'd - which is just a chocolate peanut butter smoothie.  But I think it made its way onto the list of Worst Foods to Eat or Eat This, Not That! or something.  Yep, a quick Google search confirms that Men's Health hates Peanut Butter Moo'd.  Truly, what could be more high-cal in a smoothie than peanut butter and chocolate?  And why would you ever settle for peach when you're in the mood for peanut butter and chocolate?!  "Hmm, today I really want a Reese's Peanut Butter cup, but I think I'll just have a peach instead.  It's kind of the same thing, isn't it?"

So I decided I would go home and make up my own slightly healthier smoothie recipe.  Peanut butter, chocolate ... how would I get it frozen?  Bananas!  Frozen bananas are a great base for any smoothie recipe!  That got me thinking about Reese's peanut butter cups, bananas dipped in chocolate (and peanut butter), peanut butter and banana sandwiches, strawberry and peanut butter sandwiches (ever had a pb&j with fresh strawberries?  divine!), strawberries dipped in chocolate ... and somehow, strawberries, bananas, chocolate, and peanut butter sounded like the perfect combination for a smoothie.

And it was.

So here is my very precise, very exact, peanut-butter-chocolate-banana-and-strawberry-smoothie recipe.  I have yet to come up with a good name for it.

Ingredients:
~A frozen banana (I chop fresh bananas into halves or thirds and freeze them in sandwich bags)
~Frozen strawberries
~Peanut butter
~Chocolate syrup
~Milk

Directions:
~Put the frozen stuff into the blender, top it with the peanut butter and chocolate.  Fill the blender with milk until the frozen stuff is barely covered, then blend till smooth.

I don't provide any exact amounts because all that matters is that you decide how much smoothie you want and fill the blender with that much frozen fruit.  So if you're just making a little bit for yourself, only fill up the blender 1/4 of the way with frozen fruit.  If you're sharing with all of your friends, maybe you want to fill it up to the top.  If you don't add enough milk, the smoothie will be too thick and your blender will have a hard time mixing it and the smoothie will be really chunky.  When you have enough milk, it blends really easily.

When you're making a smoothie with all different kinds of fruit, it's really easy to put too much fruit in the blender.  "I'll just have a few strawberries and a few peaches and some pineapple and oh I should add some frozen orange juice concentrate, and .... wait!  The blender is completely full!"  Really, a single strawberry will be good enough.  You don't need half a cup of everything  It took me a long time to learn that.

When making smoothies, I hear you can add yogurt and stuff to make it thicker.  One thing I really like about making smoothies at home is that you know exactly what's in it and how much is in it.  My smoothies consist of real fruit and 1% lowfat milk (and the occasional chocolate syrup and peanut butter, which will soon be Adam's 100% natural peanut butter) - can you beat that ingredient list?  I think not!!

My Punctuality Obsession

I like to think of myself as a reliable person.  A part of that means I like to be on time.  If I don't think I'll be able to commit to something, I'll avoid committing to a specific time I don't know I can make.  Usually, I'll have dinner ready at 6 if that's what we agreed to, or I'll pick you up exactly on time for our gym appointment, or whatever.

What's the key?  Um ... it's actually trying to get out the door 10 minutes earlier than you think you need to.  This wasn't a problem before Carmen was born, but now I have to make sure I've got her sippy and it's full and we have some food if she gets hungry in the car and she needs a diaper change and she's pulled off her shoes and lost them somewhere AGAIN and did I remember all the stuff I need for the 4000 errands I'm stringing together on this outing?

Anyway.  I was taking Sadie to school the other day.  School starts at 12:38, so my goal is to drop her off around 12:35 so she's on time but not so early that she'll be bored before class starts.  I have my car clock synced with my phone's clock, give or take a few seconds, so I'm pretty consistent about what time I get her to school.

Turns out the school's clocks aren't quite exactly the same as mine.  I was dropping her off on Friday and she was concerned about being on time because they were going to sing around the Christmas tree.  She told me stories about, "Sometimes when I'm late they already have the carpets out.  I don't want to be late because they might have already left to sing."  and I thought, "Oh, crap, I'm ever late?!  I know there was that one time it was exactly 12:38 and there were some other kids getting dropped off, too, but ... how often am I late because I think it's a different time than it really is?"

And stress, and spaz.

Aren't you glad you're not married to me?

It's 6:03 and dinner's ready whenever the Hurds get here with Mark.  I figure they'll call by 6:15.  I like having things done on time so they don't have to wait up on me once they get here.  You never know what things are going to be like with traffic and snow and whatnot.