We've been back to work and I really don't have much to say. So a somewhat current picture of Ivy will do.
My sitter did her hair. This was Ivy's second pep rally. Another mom/teacher is loaning us this uniform. She's gotten so big!
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Checking In
I know no one really checks this out...
We've been back to work and I really don't have much to say. So a somewhat current picture of Ivy will do.
My sitter did her hair. This was Ivy's second pep rally. Another mom/teacher is loaning us this uniform. She's gotten so big!
We've been back to work and I really don't have much to say. So a somewhat current picture of Ivy will do.
My sitter did her hair. This was Ivy's second pep rally. Another mom/teacher is loaning us this uniform. She's gotten so big!
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Crafting
What I had originally planned on doing was way more complicated. It involved making something like a picture frame with decorative moulding trim and cutting it all in a mitering box and going absolutely crazy. Then I saw these plaque/mounting boards and said SO SIMPLE! DUH!!
I found a piece of scrapbook paper in the color theme I wanted. I have this crazy obsession with woodland creatures (especially cute owls) right now and the paper I found was really cute! I painted the edge of the plaque and the front and sides of the letters in coordinating brown and pink. I cut the the paper in shape of the plaque and glued it down with Mod Podge. I nailed the letters on, screwed in some eye-screws and threaded the matching ribbon. Voila!
I found a piece of scrapbook paper in the color theme I wanted. I have this crazy obsession with woodland creatures (especially cute owls) right now and the paper I found was really cute! I painted the edge of the plaque and the front and sides of the letters in coordinating brown and pink. I cut the the paper in shape of the plaque and glued it down with Mod Podge. I nailed the letters on, screwed in some eye-screws and threaded the matching ribbon. Voila!
Monday, July 26, 2010
7 Days
It's another Monday. It's time to plan another menu. I'd really like to just do a month's worth instead of doing this every week. Merk! I don't have anything interesting to say except it is...
Monday - Taco pasta salad (since we didn't eat that last week)
Tuesday - Pizza
Wednesday - Nachos
Thursday - Sesame noodles
Friday - Fried rice
Saturday - Fettuccine alfredo
Sunday - Hot links (since we didn't eat that last week either)
We're going to try to go vegetarian. But first, to get the meat out of the freezer - NO WASTING! And then to ease it on out of the diet.
We got Wii Fit Plus. I really like it. I haven't been feeling too great lately so I haven't been on in a few days.
It seems that Ivy is cutting a third tooth.
Memory time! One of my (many) uncles used to cut wood for a living. I mean like little scroll work. I wouldn't know what to call it exactly. Anyway, my generation of grandkids all got wall hangers or door hangers with our names on them. I have my name in a pretty cursive on a star. The colors are blue pink and yellow. It's really cute. I don't know where it is. I think it's at my parent's house? I don't know.
Anyway, I wanted Ivy to have one so I decided to make one for her. It's brown and pink. The front of the main piece of wood has a cure little woodland creature themed piece of scrapbook paper attached to it. I really need to find a way to attach her name to the plate. I'll probably invest in some wood putty, nail it all together, fill the holes and paint over it. Simple. Pics soon.
Monday - Taco pasta salad (since we didn't eat that last week)
Tuesday - Pizza
Wednesday - Nachos
Thursday - Sesame noodles
Friday - Fried rice
Saturday - Fettuccine alfredo
Sunday - Hot links (since we didn't eat that last week either)
We're going to try to go vegetarian. But first, to get the meat out of the freezer - NO WASTING! And then to ease it on out of the diet.
We got Wii Fit Plus. I really like it. I haven't been feeling too great lately so I haven't been on in a few days.
It seems that Ivy is cutting a third tooth.
Memory time! One of my (many) uncles used to cut wood for a living. I mean like little scroll work. I wouldn't know what to call it exactly. Anyway, my generation of grandkids all got wall hangers or door hangers with our names on them. I have my name in a pretty cursive on a star. The colors are blue pink and yellow. It's really cute. I don't know where it is. I think it's at my parent's house? I don't know.
Anyway, I wanted Ivy to have one so I decided to make one for her. It's brown and pink. The front of the main piece of wood has a cure little woodland creature themed piece of scrapbook paper attached to it. I really need to find a way to attach her name to the plate. I'll probably invest in some wood putty, nail it all together, fill the holes and paint over it. Simple. Pics soon.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Menu Plan Monday July 19
Monday
Dinner: Pizza & salad
Tuesday
Breakfast: Egg in a hole, fruit salad
Dinner: Skillet grilled chicken, rice-a-roni, steamed broccoli
Wednesday
Breakfast: Pancakes
Dinner: Fried shrimp & french fries
Thursday
Breakfast: Granola and yogurt
Dinner: Chicken taco pasta salad and garden salad
Friday
Breakfast: Muffins
Dinner: Tuna sandwiches
Saturday
Breakfast: Eat at Chiloso
Dinner: Hot links
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Food
I'm hungry so I'm posting about one of my favorite topics: Food. Specifically, snacks.
I recently found out that I do like celery after all. I made my foods and parenting classes make snacks for kids. Ants on a log was one of them and my way to encourage kids to eat stuff they claim to not like is to try what I don't like. I found out it was pretty good. So I have been thinking, what else can I do with celery?
Here's a list of things you can put on celery sticks:
- Peanut butter and apples or pretzels
- Cheese: Chunks of cheddar, cream cheese, herb cream cheese
- Beans: Re-fried beans with shredded cheese and maybe salsa
- Salad: tuna, chicken, egg, ham salads
Speaking of the world cup: Japan just lost to Paraguay at the penalty kicks :(
Another snack that sound good: Trail mix
- Chex Mix
- Puppy Chow / Dog Food / White Trash
- Put together anything you want: pretzels, candy pieces, nuts, dried fruit, peanut butter, chocolate or butterscotch pieces, really whatever you want.
I'm thinking I'll totally make a youtube channel for making baby food then progress to toddler foods and maybe on down the line to kids foods and snacks. Watch for a new blogger! Buahahaha!!!
Monday, June 28, 2010
Summer Fun
Ryan and I took Ivy swimming for the first time a week ago. Her floaty was/is HUGE. She was okay with everything at first and then figured out that this was meant to be fun and ended up splashing Daddy really good!
My parents and I took Ivy to a local fountain park for some more water fun!
My parents and I took Ivy to a local fountain park for some more water fun!
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Being the Mother of a Girl
This is totally something I would have loved as a little girl - DIY Play Kitchens. Will Ivy be a girly-girl? Or will she be a tomboy?
One thing I thought of that didn't occur to me until this week is hair. I've never been one to do my own hair. I never had girlfriends to do their hair. I never was interested in kids enough (as a younger adult or older teen) to mess with little girls hair. There are things that I know how to do, but executing them? Not so much. Poor Ivy is going to have some weird hair. I'm pretty sure it's going to be wavy. She has a swirl and a huge cow-lick just like me. And you can't do anything to it unless it's wet. Oh gosh. Later in her life, I hope she has girlfriends who will show her how to do her own hair and will let her do their hair. Until then, I hope I can do what she wants or likes to an acceptable standard.
See, here's what I wasn't considering at all. I always thought (and completely accepted) that I would have boys. This hair thing never entered my mind.
One thing I thought of that didn't occur to me until this week is hair. I've never been one to do my own hair. I never had girlfriends to do their hair. I never was interested in kids enough (as a younger adult or older teen) to mess with little girls hair. There are things that I know how to do, but executing them? Not so much. Poor Ivy is going to have some weird hair. I'm pretty sure it's going to be wavy. She has a swirl and a huge cow-lick just like me. And you can't do anything to it unless it's wet. Oh gosh. Later in her life, I hope she has girlfriends who will show her how to do her own hair and will let her do their hair. Until then, I hope I can do what she wants or likes to an acceptable standard.
See, here's what I wasn't considering at all. I always thought (and completely accepted) that I would have boys. This hair thing never entered my mind.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Let's Make Baby Food!
Today, I decided to finally document the baby food adventures. I started at 1:30 pm and finished at 2:45 pm. An hour and fifteen minutes... That's a shopping trip. For today's baby food cooking mini-session, apples.
Gather your equipment.
Cutting board, pot, vegetable peeler, knife (use a chef's knife, not a steak knife - this was the only knife I could find... I'm not at home) and apples.
Ryan saw an article that if you're making baby food, there are certain things you buy organic. Apples are one of them. These are fuji apples, a mildly sweet taste.
Grab your vegetable peeler and get to peeling.
(This is my intense work face)
If you're going to be making a lot of your own baby food, you should definitely invest in a good peeler. I used an old one that was completely made of metal. Not fun. This red one has a great handle. Very comfortable.
Don't worry about getting all the peel off at the top and bottom. We'll just cut that away later.
Cut your apples in half.
This is where the chef's knife would come in handy. It was such a pain cutting these large apples with a steak knife. Not made for this job.
Lay the half down and cut into fourths.
Then remove the core with a slight diagonal cut.
Cut the quarters (eighths really) into chunks. Make sure you cut away any questionable areas and leftover skin.
Feel free to taste test (uh, I love apples).
Give them a good rinse and just cover with water.
Boil on high for... oh 10 minutes.
This is the perfect time to clean up what you've used so far. This is a concept that my advanced foods class couldn't quite comprehend even after several time management essays. They lost kitchen privileges.
Ah, look at that perfect boil.
Still a way to go, get one of these out. You can use a food processor or a blender (which is what I use at home). Do you see any specialized equipment here? No. No hand food grinders. No specialized baby food steamers. And later, no special prepared baby food freezing containers.
Test for done-ness. If you insert a fork, does it give? Is it soft? Here, not so much.
I'm furiously texting my mom at this point.
When I cook, I cook by smell. Can I smell the food? Then it's done. I can smell apples in the air! (This is my intense food-sniffing face.)
Apple chunks into the food processor.
Reserve the cooking liquid.
Boiling food releases vitamins into the cooking water and water seeps into the food. Reserving the liquid helps you retain some vitamins. You can add those vitamins back into the food during the processing by adding that water if the food isn't moist enough.
I'm ready. Machine is ready. Are YOU ready?
Here we go!
No more apple chunks.
Looks like applesauce. That's what it should be.
I think it's a bit dry though so I add a little of that reserved water.
Go ahead and taste it. My motto, I won't feed it to Ivy if I won't taste it. I did taste this. I also tasted so I could do this...
Yes, it was cool enough. And yes, she seems to like it.
I pour the applesauce into a more manageable container to better pour with.
And then I pour the sauce into cleaned ice cube trays. Oopsies, I forgot to rotate this picture.
I actually pour as much as I can on one side of the ice cube trays.
And then smooth it all out which pushes excess into the next cup.
Perfect.
Into the freezer it goes!
Once it's frozen, pop the food out of the trays and store in large freezer zip bags.
Clean everything else up and you're good to go!
Okay... I mentioned this in an earlier post... about the green beans being very different from each other. I forgot to rotate this one too. Poop.
Gather your equipment.
Cutting board, pot, vegetable peeler, knife (use a chef's knife, not a steak knife - this was the only knife I could find... I'm not at home) and apples.
Ryan saw an article that if you're making baby food, there are certain things you buy organic. Apples are one of them. These are fuji apples, a mildly sweet taste.
Grab your vegetable peeler and get to peeling.
(This is my intense work face)
If you're going to be making a lot of your own baby food, you should definitely invest in a good peeler. I used an old one that was completely made of metal. Not fun. This red one has a great handle. Very comfortable.
Don't worry about getting all the peel off at the top and bottom. We'll just cut that away later.
Cut your apples in half.
This is where the chef's knife would come in handy. It was such a pain cutting these large apples with a steak knife. Not made for this job.
Lay the half down and cut into fourths.
Then remove the core with a slight diagonal cut.
Cut the quarters (eighths really) into chunks. Make sure you cut away any questionable areas and leftover skin.
Feel free to taste test (uh, I love apples).
Give them a good rinse and just cover with water.
Boil on high for... oh 10 minutes.
This is the perfect time to clean up what you've used so far. This is a concept that my advanced foods class couldn't quite comprehend even after several time management essays. They lost kitchen privileges.
Ah, look at that perfect boil.
Still a way to go, get one of these out. You can use a food processor or a blender (which is what I use at home). Do you see any specialized equipment here? No. No hand food grinders. No specialized baby food steamers. And later, no special prepared baby food freezing containers.
Test for done-ness. If you insert a fork, does it give? Is it soft? Here, not so much.
I'm furiously texting my mom at this point.
When I cook, I cook by smell. Can I smell the food? Then it's done. I can smell apples in the air! (This is my intense food-sniffing face.)
Apple chunks into the food processor.
Reserve the cooking liquid.
Boiling food releases vitamins into the cooking water and water seeps into the food. Reserving the liquid helps you retain some vitamins. You can add those vitamins back into the food during the processing by adding that water if the food isn't moist enough.
I'm ready. Machine is ready. Are YOU ready?
Here we go!
No more apple chunks.
Looks like applesauce. That's what it should be.
I think it's a bit dry though so I add a little of that reserved water.
Go ahead and taste it. My motto, I won't feed it to Ivy if I won't taste it. I did taste this. I also tasted so I could do this...
Yes, it was cool enough. And yes, she seems to like it.
I pour the applesauce into a more manageable container to better pour with.
And then I pour the sauce into cleaned ice cube trays. Oopsies, I forgot to rotate this picture.
I actually pour as much as I can on one side of the ice cube trays.
And then smooth it all out which pushes excess into the next cup.
Perfect.
Into the freezer it goes!
Once it's frozen, pop the food out of the trays and store in large freezer zip bags.
Clean everything else up and you're good to go!
Okay... I mentioned this in an earlier post... about the green beans being very different from each other. I forgot to rotate this one too. Poop.
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