Archive for February, 2009
I am stressssssed out. We’re in the midst of buying a house, and I had no idea how nerve-wracking this whole process was going to be. I’m not the nervous, stressed-out type either. I know that God is sovereign and that means I should not be anxious about anything. But, I gotta tell ya, I’m not doing as well as I should be on that front. We found a house we love, in a great location, and it’s exactly what we want. We went through the ups and downs of the offer process and were so excited when the final offer was accepted, only to be plunged into the lovely business of getting approved for a mortgage. With the current financial situation the country and mortgage business is in, nothing is a sure bet and we’re just waiting for the final word on approval.
So, I’m trying to ignore that nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach. It will go away soon. All will be well. Amen.
We’re now into full baby food mode with Little D at 7.5 months, and I can’t stand to spend all that money on baby food when it’s so easy to make my own for the most part. I’m an inherently lazy person, so something needs to be quick and easy or I’m probably not going to be all that motivated to do it. With my first one, I was all gung ho on making almost all his food, and I had the time and it was fun to experiment, but with this one I’m only doing the really easy stuff to save some money. So, I buy cans of fruit in light syrup and no salt vegetables in cans or frozen bags, and then just throw them in this Baby Food Processor
There is a great homemade baby food site called Wholesome Baby Food where you can find everything from how to prepare simple purees to making homemade teething biscuits. It’s the most thorough site I’ve ever run across.
Did you know parents used to give their babies stuff like beef hearts and liver & bacon when they first started selling baby food in jars? Ugh… blech…yuck!
My husband’s mother is a germ-o-phobe. She always has been. When her two boys were little, she would not allow them to touch the floor (she always put a clean sheet down on the floor for them to play on), and they were not allowed to play outside barefoot. She boiled everything, scoured everything and essentially eradicated every bit of dirt possible, and both my husband and his brother were some of the sickest kids I’ve ever heard of. They had allergies, repeated ear infections, asthma, etc. She thought she was doing the right thing. Back in the day that’s what everyone believed, though I expect not many went to quite the extent she did.
The New York Times recently published an article called Babies Know: A Little Dirt is Good for You that is almost a little disturbing as it talks about the kinds of things we ingest all the time, but it sure is helpful if you’re the type to worry about germs and dirt. Turns out, they’re helpful!
I thought I’d post a little diet update since I mentioned the Idiot Proof Diet about a month ago.
The Idiot Proof Diet is awesome!!
I’ve done Weight Watchers with very good success, and until now hadn’t found anything to surpass it. The reason this diet is so good is that you make all your food choices up front and it then spits out a menu for you. You don’t have to constantly be making choices about what you’re going to eat. That’s always been such a downfall for me as I have very little willpower. I could make pretty good choices when I was single, and didn’t have the regular temptation to finish my kid’s chicken nuggets and fries, or my husband’s every other night requests to go out to eat. But now, I find it almost impossible to stick to a diet.
Another nice thing about the diet is that you get to take several days off every 11 days. That makes it MUCH easier to say no to cookies or cake. I just tell myself, I can have that on my day off. It makes it easier to turn down knowing I can have it in several days if I want it. I’ve found that one day is enough. More than that, and I go a little too crazy with the food choices.
So… the 1 month results: I’ve lost about 12 pounds and that’s with very little exercise, some cheating and not doing as well as I should have, especially on days off. I still have a hard time resisting those chicken nuggets- gotta work on that.
He’s 3 years old! I keep repeating this to myself. It doesn’t work. I still get way too angry when Big J runs screaming down the hall outside the door behing which Little D is sleeping. Because he’s so articulate, he seems so much older to me and when he totally disregards instructions because he’s wrapped up in chasing the cat, for instance, I have a hard time remembering that it’s perfectly normal. High expectations are good, but being realistic about them is important too. I need to expect him to be considerate and not disturb people while they’re sleeping, but I should not be surprised or angry when he doesn’t. Anger doesn’t do anyone any good.
That’s my little pep talk to myself…
I love my camera. I had a point and shoot for a long time that I really liked, but grew very dissatisfied with it’s limitations after looking at the photography on sites like Notes From the Trenches and Pioneer Woman. I finally gave in to my lusting after a digital SLR and bought an entry level camera – the Nikon D40
Here’s a good example, using some of the actions from the Pioneer Woman site. The first image is how it came out of the camera:
Cute picture… I like it and all, but look what happens when I throw some action on it:
Now I can’t stop looking at it. The changes are pretty subtle too. If you enjoy photography and are one of the few people not already reading the Pioneer Woman, you’ve got to check out her photos- beautiful stuff.
