There ain't no calm before a storm in Oklahoma

The weathermen here are reporting a big snowstorm in this neck of the woods tonight. If you ever want to see a yearly reenactment of Independence Day mayhem, just come to Oklahoma on the eve of a snowstorm. People are driving all over the place, buying out stores, and pulling their hair out, panicking about the possibility of power loss.

I made the naive decision to make a trip to Wal-Mart today. Holy shopping carts, Batman. People were running amok, filling shopping carts to the brim! It was really entertaining to see what people were stocking up on. I saw entire carts loaded up with cases of Dr. Pepper and beer; other people were buying armloads of frozen chicken. Because, you know, if the power goes out, they will keep just fine in a refrigerator that's not running and cook great in an oven that's not baking. :-P

In the Downright Domicile, we'll be having cold cereal, bananas, leftover taco soup, hummus, and sandwiches. Lots and lots of sandwiches. Funny thing about this 2001 Bread Challenge:  I can't bring myself to buy bread from the store anymore. I've developed a taste for homemade bread, and can't tolerate the thought of spending money for inferior bread at the store when I can make it for cheaper. :-P So today, I'll be making lots of bread!

I also stocked up on some cold cereal. Do you know how impossible it is to find cereal without sugar? I thought, well, surely Rice Krispies doesn't have sugar! WRONG! Sugar is the SECOND ingredient! So I just bought some generic puffed brown rice and red wheat.

Anyways, the point of this whole post: I am hoping to get a Knead-It Monday post up tonight, but I have a lot of baking and laundry to do before the storm hits. So don't be broken-hearted if that doesn't appear till tomorrow-- or later, if we actually lose power.

For Your Saturday Reading Pleasure

Here are some of the great reads I've seen this week!



How to speed-peel a potato. I love it because of the hilarious background music.


Why Having a Toddler is Like Being at a Frat Party. I don't have a toddler, and I've never been to a frat party, but this made me chuckle. Be sure to check out the comments, as well!


Make homemade air fresheners!


How do coffee-shop baristas make all those swirly designs in the coffee? Here are the secrets!


You can see more good reads at Simply Staci!

Seven Quick Takes Friday: All About Food

1-- I have done some deep rethinking of our meal schedule around here. Since Adam works late, we go to bed and wake up much, much later than the average person-- and this completely interferes with trying to eat on a normal person's schedule. We don't really have a lunch because we've usually just had breakfast. In the evenings, when Adam's gone, I don't like cooking dinner for just little ol' me, and Adam doesn't like spending his earnings on dinner. So, we do a lot of mindless whatever, whenever eating-- NOT GOOD!


2-- So, we're going to go all Spaniard around here and eat dinner, as a family, when Adam gets home- usually around 9- and adjust the rest of the mealtimes accordingly. We'll try it for a week and see how it works!


3-- My first month of Sugarless 2011 is coming to a close, and it's been a great success so far! It really feels like a lifestyle now. It was a little difficult in the beginning to remember, but Adam saved the day on several occasions by saying, "Um, what about your resolution?" when I'd mindlessly accept a sweet treat offered by friends.


4-- Something funny happened a couple weeks into this month, though. One night, I ate baked potatoes. Not a big deal to a person eating a normal diet with sugar, but I discovered about .4875 seconds after that particular meal that eating big, starchy potatoes is like eating crack. I had intense cravings for all sorts of sugary pastries for the rest of the day! Who woulda thunk.


5-- I am sometimes possessed of the irrational fear that the world's supply of cheesecake will be exhausted by January 1, 2012.


6-- Adam's been a champ. Besides helping me be more mindful, he actually does the no-sugar thing with me-- when he can. He does work in a bakery, after all, and therein lies temptation that no mortal could withstand.


7-- And, of course, the token Baby D take, which has nothing to do with food.

Already showing some musical aptitude?

Tonight is the second night since Tuesday that I laid him down fully awake for bed, turned off the lights, and found him sound asleep in a couple minutes! I am discovering that sleep is yet another thing that humans grow into-- I don't think it necessarily has to be an either/or situation (either let him cry it out or nurse him to sleep till the end of time). It's nice to have all this extra time in the evening, but just between you and me, I'm going to miss our snuggly bedtime.



And that's it for my seven quick takes! If you want to join in the fun, head on over to Conversion Diary!

Convert a short-sleeve onesie into a long-sleeve T-shirt!

I discovered a curious thing about the children's clothing industry: apparently, babies age 3-12 months aren't allowed to wear T-shirts, unless they are purchased with the coordinating pants and hoodie ensemble. I discovered this as I combed through several large stores, thinking,  I just want a dang shirt! and finding that I had three options: squeeze Baby D into a 0-3 month shirt, let him swim in a 12-month shirt, or buy the shirt/pant combo and let the pants languish in a drawer somewhere.


I chose none of the above. And you don't have to, either! You can transform a short-sleeve onesie from this:

To this:

Here's what you'll need:

-Short-sleeved onesie
-Material for the sleeves. You can use any kind of knitted material: an old t-shirt, another onesie. I just happened to have some leftover knit fabric from another project. be sure the material is stretchy. Otherwise, it will fit really weird and Junior won't be able to bend his arms!
-Long-sleeved shirt or onesie to use as a pattern


(Sorry the pictures are such poor quality. My camera is currently broken, so I'm having to take photos with my cell phone! I hope to replace these pictures eventually.)


1. Lay the long-sleeved onesie out. Lay the short-sleeved onesie on top, with the shoulder seams matching. Measure the length difference in the sleeves. Also measure the width at the top of the sleeve, and the bottom. Add one inch to the length, and 1/4 inch to both widths.

For my six-month onesie, the dimensions (after adding the additional lengths) were seven inches long by 3-3/4 inches wide, tapering down to 3-1/2 inches. 

2. Fold your sleeve material in half. You want the knitting to be running up and down the fold, not across it. That way, the sleeves will stretch the right way. Cut two sleeves on the fold using your measurements. So, after cutting, my sleeves were 7 inches long by 7-1/2 inches wide, tapering to 7 inches.

3. On the short tapered end, fold up 1/4 inch onto the wrong side and sew with a zigzag stitch. This will be the end of the sleeve.

4. Fold in half, right sides together, and sew a 1/4 inch seam with a plain old running stitch. You now have a sleeve!

5. Turn the onesie inside-out. Pin the new sleeve, inside out, onto the onesie, matching seams. (As you can see, I like to use lots of pins!) You want the new sleeve to extend past the onesie sleeve hem stitching.

6. This was hard to photograph, so bear with me! You are going to be stitching on the outside of the onesie sleeve. Position the onesie on the sewing machine just so you are stitching through the neckhole onto the right side of the sleeve, but the rest of the onesie is inside-out. Using a zigzag stitch, sew over the hem stitching on the onesie sleeve.

All right! The hard part is over! You can stop here, if you just wanted long sleeves on your onesie. But if you still want a shirt, keep reading...

7. Cut across the onesie, just above the leg holes. This may seem like a long length for a shirt, but if you cut much shorter, you'll end up with a belly shirt-- especially if your baby has a longer torso. Trust me! If you still think it's too long after it's finished, you can just fold it up once more and sew that.

8. Fold up the bottom of the shirt about 5/8 inch onto the wrong side. Sew all around with a zigzag stitch.

Congratulations, you have a new shirt!

Evidently, Baby D doesn't like orange

This is a participating post on Works for Me Wednesday. Be sure to check out all the other great ideas floating around cyberspace!

Inspired by Finn Amber Necklace Review

Watching your child is pain is NOT. FUN. And when your child starts growing teeth, you feel like you are growing them right along with him. So when you hear about a device that might possibly ease the pain naturally, and then you find an online store that loves to collaborate with bloggers...

Then you buy an amber teething necklace from Inspired by Finn.


The Store

Look at that beautiful nursing necklace!

Inspired by Finn is an online store that specializes in Baltic amber and Hazelwood jewelry. Baltic amber is a traditional European pain reliever, and Hazelwood is thought to help ailments of an acidic nature (acid reflux, ulcers, skin problems). I first ran across Inspired by Finn in November. I was so impressed by their selection and their in-depth knowledge about amber, that two months later, when I had some questions about amber jewelry, I searched high and low to find this site again! Even if you're not in the market for teething help right now, you should check them out anyways for a very informational read about the benefits of amber. They also sell amber jewelry for adults, including special pieces to help deal with knee or back pain, and a risk-free trial for those suffering from arthritis or carpal tunnel!

It was quite easy to purchase the necklace online. Each necklace is offered in a variety of lengths (and I recommend getting one a couple inches longer than you think your baby needs, because those fat rolls will swallow up the necklace! :-P). It took about a week from placing the order to having it arrive on my doorstep. That may have been because this was a special-order review, because I've seen other reports of necklaces arriving within 48 hours after ordering. The shipping is a flat rate of $1.95, which is very reasonable!

So the store is great, but how is the necklace working?


The Necklace

I chose a semi-polished necklace in Lemonade. According to Inspired by Finn, the lighter the amber is, the more healing succinic acid it contains; and let me tell you, after a month of teething woes, I wanted the strongest they had to offer! It came with a little tag stating that this particular necklace was handmade in Lithuania on November 5, 2010. The necklace attaches with an interesting plastic screw clasp that is embedded in an amber bead, so that the only thing touching the wearer is amber all around. The beads are all separated by individual knots, so that if the necklace ever does break, you won't have beads all over the floor. Whoever invented these must have been a parent! :-D

Adam can ALWAYS get Baby D to smile! I'm so jealous!

I didn't really notice any difference until the third day after putting it on Baby D. Ever since then, he has been considerably less cranky! He still has pain, but I can tell that it's significantly diminished. His mood is overall better, and he's not tugging on his ears as much. Another really interesting side-effect: every day since Baby D came home from the hospital, he gets a couple episodes of waking from his naps, wailing and crying to break your heart. I don't know if he has bad dreams or what the deal is, but it freaks me out. After he started wearing the necklace, though, his episodes have greatly decreased! That right there is worth getting the necklace!



So, to recap:

For us, this wasn't the end-all end to teething pain, but it definitely helps. I just found out from my mom that I had teething pain for TWO (!!!!!) months before cutting my first teeth, so if Baby D did indeed inherent my horrible teething genes, then this was definitely a good investment. And I'm so glad I got it, if only to cut out those weird naptime wailing episodes! It's a nice, drug-free way to help out the little guy.

If you ever decide to buy amber jewelry, I definitely recommend Inspired by Finn for a few reasons:

-Quality of merchandise
-Variety. They offer all sorts of shades and finishes and sizes for every age!
-Knowledge and experience

Mmmm, I just want to eat those little cheeks!

*Full disclosure: I received a 50% discount off my necklace of choice from Inspired By Finn in exchange for writing a review on this blog. The opinions and experiences expressed on this review are completely my own, and I was not compensated to tell you how awesome the necklace was. :-P

Perfect Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese

A favorite meal from my childhood was tomato soup and grilled cheese. Thanks to some tricks from my mom, I have just about perfected this dish-- and I thought I'd pass on those tricks to you!

Knead It Monday: Wherein Baby D Tried to Foil Me

Baby D decided that I wasn't making nearly enough posts about him, so he decided to totally hijack my breadmaking post today. In fact, even at this moment, he is being absolutely angelic for the first time today and is trying to lure me away with false promises of actually being happy today. Away, ye tempter!

So I decided to try my hand with the whole wheat recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. It called for 1/3 cup brown sugar. Silly me, I decided I would have no need of any brown sugar in my Sugarless 2011, so I didn't bother refilling it when it ran out a few days before New Year's. So I substituted about 1/4 cup honey instead.

The directions requested that I mix the yeast with some of the flour, then heat the water, sugar, butter, and salt in a saucepan, and then add it to the yeast/flour mixture-- and then mix with a hand mixer for 3 minutes. I thought that was a bit odd, but I followed the directions (besides adding the salt; I thought I'd do that later, with the rest of the flour).

As I turned off the mixer, I heard a pathetic cry from the bedroom. That darn mixer had woken Baby D! So I let this weird yeast soup sit while I nursed Baby D back to sleep again. I tiptoed out, mixed in the rest of the flour and started kneading, when...

Baby D let me know in no uncertain terms that HIS. NAP. WAS. OVER.

So I washed all the gunk off my hands and brought him out. I finished kneading, put it to rise, and realized that I never remembered to add the salt. ARG.

Baby D was great until about ten minutes before I needed to punch down the dough. Then he made the mother of all messy diapers just as my mom called, so I was juggling a naked baby and a phone while the dough sat forlornly in the oven. I finally rescued it after a two-hour rise time, and separated it into two loaves. I forget why, but that also sat there for a while before I could put them into loaf pans for the second rise.

Fast forward to the end of the second rise, which also went way too long. Baby D was very angrily insisting that I feed him RIGHT NOW, and I was tired and hungry. For an instant, I started to take the loaves out of the oven so it could preheat for a few minutes, but I stopped with a very dignified, ladylike phrase: "Aw, SCREW IT!" I turned on the oven and let it preheat with the loaves inside and sat down with Baby D. Happy mom, happy baby, unhappy little loaves.

As you can guess, they didn't turn out the best. But one of the things I just love about homemade bread is that even when it doesn't come out perfect, it always comes out delicious, nonetheless! I might try this recipe again in the near future, but try mixing the yeast and water conventionally, and use brown sugar. And give Baby D away.

Just kidding about that last part, but I'd love it if he'd just sprout some teeth already.

Birth Control: how having a baby changed my opinion

Imagine this: one day, someone very dear to you comes up one day, and says, "Look! I have a gift for you!" You take one look at it and say, "I don't want it. Give it to me later." But it doesn't stop there. You glue up your mailbox so he can't mail it, and you purposely time things so that you avoid opportunities to receive it. You arm yourself with chemicals that will destroy that gift, should it come near. You also load up on excuses, like, "I can't afford the upkeep on your present." "First, I want to do XYZ before I enjoy your gift." "What if I'm not a good recipient?" Then, one day, maybe years later, you call your friend up and tell him you will accept his present now. You open it up, and OMG!!!!! It is the best thing that has ever happened to you in your life!!!!! You sit there, holding your gift, and think to yourself, Why on earth didn't I accept this gift sooner?


This was my experience with birth control.

It was all too easy for me to spout off, "CHILDREN ARE A GIFT OF THE LORD, PSALM ONE-TWENTY-SEVEN THREE!" and "GOD PROVIDES!" But you know what? We delayed starting a family mainly out of fear. What if I can't finish school? What if we have to move? What if insurance doesn't cover the birth? (it didn't, and we lived to tell about it) What if? What if? What if? We practiced NFP, which is by far the least aggressive way to control fertility, but the truth remains: we actively avoided pregnancy for nearly two years.

Now, on the other side of things, I tremble a little to see what we did. It's easy to deny life to a theoretical baby, but now that I see he is a real, breathing child with a little personality and a unique face, I realize that we were playing god with a human life.

We were also in effect telling God, "We know best when we should receive our blessings." I'm not going to lie; having a baby is AWESOME. Baby D is a sweet little person who has stretched me in a zillion ways and provided so many smiles and wow moments. Now, when Baby D looks at me and just breaks out into the biggest, happiest grin that says, "You're the world to me!" the thought hits me between the eyes: I actually purposely cheated myself out of this blessing for years?

Choosing to be open to life is a SCARY thing. Even with all the NICU drama and the financial woes, the most terrifying part of this parenthood journey has been choosing to leave our fertility to God. Actually, do you know the catalyst for our change of heart? It was realizing that material happiness might be a long time coming for us. Buying a house, traveling the world, completely repaying student loans, owning a car with a working gas gauge (LOL!)-- it could take years for all that to happen, if they happen at all. So why lose this decade, always looking ahead to when things will get better-- when we can have what really matters and enjoy the time that we are in right now?


So now, I'm trying to figure out where this leaves us. There are signs that my fertility might be returning soon (thanks for nothing, Ecological Breastfeeding! Hmph.), so I have to take a long, hard look at where we go from here. All I know is, even after actually knowing all the pain and work that children bring, I am even less sympathetic to the desire to avoid creating a human being than before.

Help! I'm In Blogging Limbo

When I go for a while without posting, it's usually because I've hit a creative bottleneck. I'll have a blog post idea that I just love, but for whatever reason, I can't actually get it written and published. When this happens, my brain just won't let me move past it until I either finally get it written or forget about it a couple weeks later.

Right now, I have about four post ideas. They require either lots of pictures or very delicate wording. God help me.

What do you do when you've hit a blogging roadblock?

Knead It Monday: The Spectacular Disaster

It only took three weeks into the new year to almost set the house on fire. It seems to happen almost every year, but I think I just set a new record! And guess what, it involved this week's bread.

I decided to mix things up this time and do something a little different: baguettes. I thought it'd be nice and easy to do, since it seems to be very comparable to tried-and-true Five-Minute Artisan Bread.

Ha. Ha. Ha.

Everything went well until the first rise. Usually, since the house is generally cold, I'll fire up the oven for about thirty seconds to get it warm, and then stick the covered dough in there. This time, when I checked the dough about halfway through the rising time, I thought the oven could be a little warmer, so I turned the oven on for another thirty seconds.

And then Adam called. I chatted with him, then cleaned a counter, and went to the bathroom. When I came out, the house was full of smoke.

I had forgotten to turn the oven off.

I pulled the dish out to find the towel badly singed and the dough partially cooked on top. The air was acrid with smoke from the rubberized bottom of the dish. Fortunately, the rest of the dish was metal, so I figured I could probably salvage my baguette plans.

Except, the bottom was cooked through.

So I grabbed the dough, greased a 9x13 pan, and threw the whole embarrassing lump into the oven, where it stayed for forty minutes or so.

The end result was a large, dense blob of bread. It tasted fine, so all was not lost-- in fact, it was really good toasted, accompanying a bowl of hearty vegetable soup later. As of this writing, the only testament to my botched baguettes are crumbs at the bottom of the 9x13, so I wouldn't call this a waste. If anything, I learned a valuable lesson: cell phones are dangerous to drivers and bread-makers alike. So don't text and bake!

This all happened Saturday. I wanted to try again before today, but I had to do other stuff that didn't actually place our lives in peril. Sometime later this year, I'll try my hand at baguettes again, but for now, there are many more different recipes for me to try! Come back next week for more Adventures in Breadmaking!

Works For Me Wednesday: Better Ramen

For those who may be stopping in from Works for Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family, here's a little backstory: we're short on cash until Friday, so I've been digging waaaay back in the pantry and doing a little creative cooking. See, I told you it was little. Today, I found these on the pantry floor:

I panicked about finishing my English essay until I remembered I'm not in college anymore. Whew! I bought these particular packets a long time ago, and then never ate them because they have enough MSG to kill an elephant. But today, I felt like shortening my life a little. But just a little, so I made some modifications.

First, I sauteed a chopped chicken breast in a little olive oil. Then I added chopped onions and garlic. And then a little more garlic. I lack a good supply of Oriental spices, so I just added a generous amount of soy sauce, ginger, and pepper.

When they were cooked, I added these:

Another can that's been languishing in the pantry. Double points for me!

And these:

Then I added the required water, ramen noodles, and, yes, the spice packet, and let it boil for a little bit.

Here was the result-- a much better cup of ramen! If you're wondering how I got the pictures, and why they're so horrible, it's because I used my camera phone.

Killing myself a little less quickly-- Works for Me!


If you are doing some creative cooking to clean out your pantry this month, I'd love to see you blog about it and post to the Linky at the top of the page!

Knead It Monday: Whole Wheat Bread

This week, I made whole wheat bread. If I get nothing else out this 2011 bread challenge, the one thing I want is a great loaf of whole wheat bread. Every recipe of WW that I've ever tried produces a loaf that is dense and small; and by "every recipe", I mean the two recipes from my two favorite cookbooks that I tried time and time again before I concluded that those recipes were just not that great.

So this week, I thought I'd try my luck with allrecipes.com. I was having trouble finding high-rated recipes that didn't involve a bread machine, so I eventually just settled on this one and went with the directions in a comment for a handmade loaf.

I don't know if the apartment was too cold, or if the directions were weird, or if this is just an issue inherent with whole wheat, but once again, I ended up with a small, dense loaf. It was very tasty, though, and it was gone the next morning! It's really hard not to just inhale the entire thing when it's warm from the oven. :-)

I really need to study up more on making whole wheat bread, because this could just be an example of false expectations from eating store-bought bread. Is it possible to have a fluffy WW loaf? I don't know, but I will definitely be trying again!

Odds and Ends

It's time for some housecleaning of the website variety! So here are a few announcements:

~I put a Linky at the top of the blog for January's Use It Up, Wear It Out event. If you are wanting to clean out some of those odd ingredients that have been sitting in your pantry forever (can of lima beans, I am looking right at you!), I would love to read about your creative cooking experiences! The Linky will be up all month, so you can post whatever whenever.


~Speaking of which, yesterday was a stroke of Providence. I suddenly remembered that I had stashed all my money from playing Christmas gigs a couple years ago as an "eat out" fund-- which I promptly forgot about. A regular squirrel, I am. :-P So I was able to restock on some basic food around here. Now I don't need to get as, um, creative as I originally planned, but I will still be raiding the pantry and writing about it!


~ Unfortunately, as I was taking pictures for a post the other day, my camera slipped and broke on the hard kitchen floor. Here is the last picture it took:

So my posts in the near future are going to be a little bare of pictures, which is great news for anybody using dial-up, until we fix this camera (if that's even possible) or get a new battery for the other one.


~ I haven't forgotten about the cloth diaper tutorial. I'm still designing, tweaking, and testing. Not to mention, I'm without a camera right now. But let me tell you, this diaper is going to be AWESOME. What I have in the works is a reversible one-size fitted/pocket diaper. One side is flannel, and the other side is fleece, both with absorbent layers sewn inside. The idea is that you can wear it as-is with the fleece on the outside for daytime use as an AIO, or you can stuff it with an insert for extra absorbency, wear it fleece-side-in, and put a cover over it for night-time use. Yeah, I'm pretty jazzed about this one. :-D I hope it all works out all right!

Well, I think that's about it. Stay tuned for a bread post later!

Use it up, wear it out: January Edition

January is always a very interesting time in the Downright Domicile. I don't know how we do it, because we don't spend much on Christmas at all, but every January since we got married, we completely run out of money. I mean, COMPLETELY. That first year as a newlywed, when Adam broke the news, my reaction was akin to this:

Fortunately, I'm used to being broke by this time, so my reaction this year went more like this:

Bottom line, I have to delve into the back of my pantry and get creative until next Friday. Remember back in July, when I did a Use It Up, Wear It Out series? I'm thinking of doing one again. And I am wondering if anyone wants to do a little using up of their own and blogging about it, because I would totally put up a Linky if you do! Well, I'll catch you later-- there is some menu planning to do!

Giveaway Winners!

First off, let me say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading all about your Christmas memories! Newborns in stockings, Bobbsey Twins books (those were my favorites growing up!), family trips, and engagement rings! Christmas is definitely a time to make some memories. And let me tell you, one day, a Kitchen-Aid mixer just might magically appear under the tree for me some day. :-P

So, without further ado, here are the two winners, according to random.org:


#26

pmj said...

My favorite gift would have to be having the family together playing games and NO fighting-which isn't easy in my family!

January 6, 2011 5:16 PM 

And #20

Nan said...

My favorite gift is one I broke down and bought for myself a couple of years ago...my KitchenAid mixer. I had wanted one forever. A very close second is the pearl necklace my hubby gave me this year :)

January 6, 2011 3:48 PM

Congratulations to pmj and Nan! You will be receiving an email shortly! 

Last day to enter the giveaway!

That cloth wipe giveaway ends tonight at midnight, so if you're looking to start or enlarge your cloth wipe stash, head on over here! I've been enjoying reading your Christmas stories!

Finding value in staying at home

Raised in a society where value is usually translated into money, I have days where I really struggle with finding value in staying at home and taking care of Baby D. Some days, as Adam goes off to a job he absolutely loathes so that he can kind of keep us afloat, I get a little embarrassed that I get to do something I absolutely love without contributing to the family coffers. I plan on at least teaching music lessons after Baby D starts weaning, but for now, I'm just working on getting an Etsy shop off the ground.

I know that I'm making the right choice, so here are a few thoughts that help me find my value on those off days.


*We do not have to pay someone to take care of Baby D. So my time is already worth at least $8.00 an hour. :-D

*Baby D is receiving wonderful immunities, saving medical bills, and getting some powerful nutritional and emotional benefits from full-time breastfeeding.

*The house runs more smoothly. The floors get vacuumed, the dishes get done, and no one has run out of socks or underwear since I came home.

*Now that I can stay on top of laundry, we save money (and Baby D's skin!) with cloth diapers.

*I left a crummy desk job that paid in peanuts. It's not like I gave up a great income or even a great career to stay home.

*I think for us, it all boils down to quantity versus quality. We choose to go without a lot in order to have a happier, less complicated house. Baby D has the security of never being far from a parent. I have so much more inner peace, now that life has slowed down and I can focus energy on the things that really matter to me. Now, if we can just find Adam a job he loves, we'll have the "quality" in abundance.


One of these days, we won't have to worry about the financial side of things so much. *crosses fingers* Do any of you SAHMs go through this? I'd be interested to hear your thoughts!

Knead It Monday: Amish White Bread

For my first 2011 loaf of bread, I decided to go with a simple white bread. I'm not a huge fan of white bread, but Adam is. In fact, it's one of our little marital sources of contention. I even made a pie chart to demonstrate.

But I wanted to make something fairly uncomplicated, so I went to allrecipes.com and found this recipe for Amish White Bread. Am I the only one who finds it ironic that the original recipe for this "Amish" white bread called for a bread machine?

Right off the bat, the recipe called for a technique I had never tried before-- proofing. You mix the yeast, water, and sugar (yes, sugar! But I decreased it from 2/3 cup *gag* to 2 Tablespoons) and let it sit for about five minutes until the yeast gets all foamy. I took the picture after I added the oil, so that's what the blob is in the foam.

After rising, the recipe called for yet another technique I'd never done with bread before: kneading the dough after the first rise. Usually, my recipes call for chucking it right into the baking dish. But I kneaded it again, and set it out for the second rise.

They rose really well! I had a very good feeling about these loaves.

When I pulled them from the oven, I was elated! My number one problem with my breads are that they never rise much. These ones were by far the tallest loaves I've ever produced!

The one on the right looks like it needs to go on a diet. 

My one complaint is that they're somewhat mooshy inside-- maybe I should have baked them longer. And it's white bread. I just can't get past the lack of substance, even though this is way better than store-bought. I'm definitely going to have to cleanse my palate with a batch of whole wheat next week!

How do you like the little graphic I made for my weekly bread posts?

Time for an EC Update!

Happy New Year! Hope you didn't party too hard! We rang in the new year at - get this - a baby party. We were invited by a couple whose baby was in the NICU with Oscar, when I ran into the mom at La Leche League a couple weeks ago. Kind of random, but we showed up anyways to a party full of couples with their babies. We didn't know anybody there, but it was fun! And I actually met someone else in real life who is doing EC with her baby. Isn't this a nice segue into an EC update?

December proved to be a uniquely challenging month of EC. We had freshly come back from a ten-day stay in NY, which was murder on EC training to begin with. Then, Oscar caught a minor stomach bug from Adam. And then he started teething. All mayhem broke loose with his little digestive system!

Suddenly, I wasn't catching his movements. We would actually go for days when I wouldn't catch anything at all. :-( I'd hold the little guy over the toilet, wait, and... nothing. So I'd put a diaper on him, and about three minutes later, he would do his business. It was really frustrating!

And then Adam surprised me. Usually, he lets me go my merry way with all my crazy ideas, and just kind of amusedly observes me. And he thought this idea was particularly hokey. However, a couple weeks into December, as I was pouring out my frustrations, he encouraged, "Just keep going through the motions. He'll get it."

Knock me over with a feather! He knows it works!

Fortunately, we got the ball rolling again. Here were three actions I found helpful:

1. Going through the motions. Just as Adam said. It really helped me keep momentum through the rough patch, instead of giving up entirely.

2. Going coverless. Leaving Oscar with just a fitted or a flat on helped me know exactly when he did his business, and from there I got a feel for his rhythm again.

3. Pottying at specific, predictable times. One easy way I helped ensure a catch was to take him to the toilet every time after he woke up, whether in the morning or after a nap. That, in my opinion, is the optimal time for success because baby wakes up with a full bladder.

So now we're pretty much back to how things were before all the craziness started. Baby D, you have pulled through once again!