Rainy Days

David is out of town.  There's some kind of Ruby on Rails conference in Portland. (Ruby on Rails always makes me think of Dorothy chasing down a train... little red slippers click-click-clicking away on the tracks.)  Anyway, I always find myself feeling like my left arm is missing when he's out of town.  This is what I'm doing to survive day 1.  The baby is sound asleep in the car, the drive thru Starbucks chickies are starting to know me by name, the wifi reaches the driveway, and the rain is lulling me to sleep.

Friday seems really far away.

Smoothies and Frozen Fun!

At nearly 9 months old, Connell has decided he's going on the typical baby hunger strike.  Initially I was concerned, as I always am when my kids go through this phase.  However, with the lovely new baby food guidelines allowing yogurt, I decided to see if I could sneak something other than breast milk into my teething munchkin's diet.

Today's smoothie ingredients.  They vary all the time.

 I seldom, if ever, take the time to measure things while cooking for the family.  Why do anything differently when it comes to the baby, right?  So I can't offer you exact measurements.  But I can tell you it's wicked easy.  

Combine:

• Two big spoonfuls of whole milk yogurt (Stoneyfield Farms Organic Whole Milk)
• Half of a very ripe banana (the riper the better)
• Handful of frozen berries 
• Roughly a quarter cup of whole grain baby cereal (Earth's Best is my favorite)
• a half jar of something green (homemade works, too!)
• and enough white grape juice to make it smooth 

(Note:  Freeze the other half of the banana and jar o' green for future smoothies.  You can freeze the rest of the juice, but I don't usually bother with that.)

Toss it all in the Baby Bullet (purchased at a consignment shop for half the retail cost.  Woo!  A blender would work just as well.).  Whirl until it's smooth.  Watch for pesky frozen berries that refuse to cooperate.

Toss it in.

Blend until smooth.

Pour into two cups.

 This usually makes two smoothies and as long as they're kept in the fridge, they will last for two days without a problem.  My favorite smoothie cups are the Take and Toss Straw Cups by The First Years.  The straws are nice and wide, which accomodate the slightly thicker texture of a smoothie.

See?  Smiley babies LOVE smoothies!  

Now, I know not all babies willingly use a straw.  Connell is a little unusual in that regard.  So here's another way to get the goodness of a smoothie into your happy little hunger striker:

Munchkin makes great molds with rounded handles, perfect for little fingers.  I highly suggest offering this treat on a hot day and right before bath time.  They're great for teething, too.  We've had success with freezing left over smoothie and homemade applesauce.

Other smoothie options:  mango, peaches, spinach, green beans, peas, avocado, carrots, prunes, apples, sweet potatoes... well, you get the picture.  Anything goes!

Enjoy!

Sweet 16

On the eve of her 16th birthday, Jillian looked at a crying Connell and sighed.

"I don't know how you put up with this all day."

"What?"

"The crying and holding and whining."

I wasn't sure how to explain it to her.  Her life experience hasn't taught her the giving end of momma-love.  So I tried.

"You were like this.  And every second was worth it.  I mean, you're pretty amazing, right?"

"Eh."

"Oh shush.  You're amazing.  I think so.  Dad thinks so.  Your aunts thing so.  It's common knowledge.  So I manage the crying and whining and holding because I know the end result is worth every gray hair."

My Bookends playing dress up.

Email Organization

Day #7 requests I de-clutter my email.  Mastered this ages ago.  Because I rock.  And I'm married to a software developer.  And I've adopted some of his OCD tendencies.  Also my email is really lame these days... it's not like the Gymboree ads need a response or I have to reply to the mass email from Girl Scouts.  But anyway, things are filtered and logged and read and sorted and deleted and... yeah, you get the picture.

On a totally different note, I'm writing from the bookstore.  This is a rare and kind of fun thing.  No kids.  I escaped for a few hours without the lovely little nose miners.  However, I've noticed I can't turn my ears off.  I listen to EVERYTHING.  Right now I'm completely aware of the three conversations going on around me (darling teenage girl trying to prove that she would make a good Buddhist  a flamboyant chess game, and a debate over the merits of whipped cream on a latte.).  The music is playing.  And the woman in front of me is chewing gum.  Oh, and Mumfort and Sons was just playing, but now it's some disappointing pop nonsense.  I should bring headphones and block the world out...

Following Instructions Isn't My Strong Suit

minimalistparenting.com

On Day #6, I was challenged to de-clutter for 15 minutes and take before and after pictures.  Only, as usual, I didn't follow directions beyond "de-clutter" and "pictures".  I chose the room that was giving me the biggest heartache, dragged the fellas with me, and had at it. 

I give you - much to my embarrassment - the before pictures of my 9 year old's room.

Now, I realize it doesn't look terrible.  (Okay, it really does, but I'm talking myself out of deleting this entire post).  Graham was sent upstairs before I snapped these pictures to scoop up all of his dirty laundry and trash.  So these pictures actually look pretty mild compared to the reality that had been his room for several weeks.

So David, Graham, and I set to work.  David and I have very different approaches to chaos.  The first thing I did was gather up all the books I could find and start sorting and organizing the bookshelf.  I make quick decisions and toss anything damaged or useless (completely colored coloring books, for instance.)  I need to finish one thing at a time so I can look back and say, "Progress!  We're making progress!" when I feel frustrated by a project.  David, on the other had, examines each object on the floor, determines its potential usefulness, life expectancy, and coolness factor.  Then, after careful consideration, he moves things into piles.  I think we drive each other crazy.

In the end, though, the rooms looks like it should.  Now I just need to finally buckle down and buy the kid some curtains.  We refinished the room in July.  It's probably about time I do that, eh?

I probably missed the point of the "15 minute de-clutter" assignment, but I'll try that approach again another time.  Right now I'm going to revel in clean.  For a day or two, at least.

A Bag o' Stuff

Day #5 requires I donate a bag 'o crap stuff.  Maybe I can tweak that a little and make arrangements to drop off the baby items Connell has outgrown to a friend who is expecting.

Outgrown.

Yeah... I'm going back to bed so I don't have to think about that.  I'll attempt to wrap my head around it when the sun comes up.

(....5 hours and no coffee later....)

So that happened.

The builders who threw this house together did a lousy job.  They installed the dining room door wrong, which resulted in a leak.  The leak resulted in the floor being buggered all to hell rotting away.  Then someone tried to fix it with drywall screws, rendering the door only slightly more useful than a sieve.

Our little "let's get a new kitchen floor plan" turned into "let's take out a wall AND do the kitchen floor" turned into "let's replace the sliding glass door AND take out a wall AND replace the kitchen floor."  

We'll live.  In the meantime, I found a very cool store down the road called Refindings .  I LOVE it and will probably visit at least once a month just to wander and enjoy.  I also saw these two nifty things:

Message board made from an old window frame with the glass removed ($25)

Puppet theater made from an old door and 4 wooden L brackets.  ($135)

I don't know that I'll ever make the puppet theater.  It's slightly more involved than I'm probably capable of and I don't know if I really have room for it.  The message board, however... that I can handle!  I would go with classic black and I might use an 8 panel window and add 2 cork boards to it.  Definitely something to think about!  We're going to a country auction tomorrow, so I'll keep an eye out for a window.  Or maybe I'll just go shopping in my brother or father's barn.  We shall see.

In the meantime, I have a bag of crap stuff to gather up.  Right after sleeping beauty here wakes up....

Delegate Schmelagate

Day #4.  Delegate chores.  I do that fairly well already.  The "bigs" do a reasonably good job with laundry, dishes, and other assorted chores.  In fact, I have a handy dandy "how to tidy our house" list on our fridge which, when I make enough noise, they occasionally use.  So good.  Maybe I'm okay with this Minimalist Parenting thing... we shall see.

In other news, this is happening:

We've decided to bite the bullet and remove the wall between the kitchen and dining room.  We've wanted to do it for 10 years and now that there are 6 of us trying to fit into the dining room, it's become apparent that we really just needed to suck it up and make it happen.  Of course, we hadn't planned on 4 hours of an electrician's time to make sense of the wack-a-doo wiring the original builders threw in.  The house is currently a dusty mess, but it already feels like a bigger, more practical space.

And in completely different news, Jill is joining the lighting department of the local theater for their production of Beauty in the Beast in May.  She's over the moon.  She's also starting SAT prep in a few weeks.  Katie will be joining the props department AND playing volleyball.  Soccer starts for Graham in a few weeks and wrapping up a very busy Cub Scout year.  So here comes spring!  Bring it!