Here's a new pregnancy slogan I came up with today after church. Pregnancy: the only time people think it's "socially acceptable" to say things like, "wow I'm so glad you're fatter than I am!" I admit the slogan is still a little rough around the edges, but you get what I'm trying to say.
People keep saying crap like this to me. To make it worse OTHER PREGNANT WOMEN keep saying crap like this to me. The line from the slogan was actually said about a month ago. Today another pregnant lady flattered me with, "You're really poppin' out a lot more than I am these days." Thanks.
The saddest part is I am way smaller with this baby than with the last one. Hopefully that means this one will be smaller. Nothing against ten pound babies but...they are HEAVY! Especially when they hit 20 lbs by the time they're 2 months old. Trust me, I've heard enough jokes about how my breastmilk must be heavy cream (from people who I'm only mildly acquainted with) to last me a lifetime. Seriously you wouldn't believe how many people said something like that to me. They all thought themselves very witty. Uhhh...please don't comment on what you think my breastmilk is like, it's awkward. Boy I'm cranky.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
I'm Back!
Some of you may have noticed that I took a brief (four month) moratorium from this blog. It's because I've been a little bit preoccupied. Puking my guts out. Who doesn't love four months of that? The Mr and I (and Jonas) are expecting baby number 2! The last and final child. No WAY I'm signing up for this again. Last week I overheard a pregnant woman say that women who are sick when pregnant need to, "just get over it." It was all I could do not to strangle her.
It's been hell to say the least. I keep going back and forth between which is worse, the overwhelming sick feeling/constant malnutrition/dehydration bit or being utterly useless. For four months I haven't been able to do much of anything, which can wear on a person. You should see my house. You should see my garden. I, myself, am afraid to look in the chicken coop. The Hubs has been AMAZING, doing laundry, housework, shopping, learning to cook, being my constant nursemaid, cleaning puke out of the carpet and all with nary a complaint. What a stud I married!
My in-laws have been great as well. If not for my sweet, sweet mother-in-law poor Jonas would have gone without much of a halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas because goodness knows I've been in no shape to cook or make a costume. She also scrubbed my kitchen to within an inch of it's life, made us dinners, shopped all over to find whatever I wanted, took Jonas so I could rest. And that's just the beginning. I'm so grateful to have married into such a wonderful family, and to live so close to them.
So that's been my life for the past four months, just gestating away on the couch. But now I'm feeling much better, fighting the tail end of a crazy cold and constantly snacking so I don't puke but it's miles from where I was. I'm so ridiculously excited to be able to clean my house and get back to life as it should be. Jonas has been begging me to plant peas with him in the garden. The kid loves his peas.
I don't mean to complain, I've really learned a lot this past season. Mostly about myself. Not the least of which, how blessed I am. And to blatantly steal from Modern Family: I wouldn't make a very inspiring disabled person. Seriously, I've really taken for granted what a gift it is to be able to work, to vaccum, to plant a garden, to cook a meal.
So in conclusion, we look forward to welcoming another bundle of joy in mid June! We find out what the sex of the baby is tomorrow!
It's been hell to say the least. I keep going back and forth between which is worse, the overwhelming sick feeling/constant malnutrition/dehydration bit or being utterly useless. For four months I haven't been able to do much of anything, which can wear on a person. You should see my house. You should see my garden. I, myself, am afraid to look in the chicken coop. The Hubs has been AMAZING, doing laundry, housework, shopping, learning to cook, being my constant nursemaid, cleaning puke out of the carpet and all with nary a complaint. What a stud I married!
My in-laws have been great as well. If not for my sweet, sweet mother-in-law poor Jonas would have gone without much of a halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas because goodness knows I've been in no shape to cook or make a costume. She also scrubbed my kitchen to within an inch of it's life, made us dinners, shopped all over to find whatever I wanted, took Jonas so I could rest. And that's just the beginning. I'm so grateful to have married into such a wonderful family, and to live so close to them.
So that's been my life for the past four months, just gestating away on the couch. But now I'm feeling much better, fighting the tail end of a crazy cold and constantly snacking so I don't puke but it's miles from where I was. I'm so ridiculously excited to be able to clean my house and get back to life as it should be. Jonas has been begging me to plant peas with him in the garden. The kid loves his peas.
I don't mean to complain, I've really learned a lot this past season. Mostly about myself. Not the least of which, how blessed I am. And to blatantly steal from Modern Family: I wouldn't make a very inspiring disabled person. Seriously, I've really taken for granted what a gift it is to be able to work, to vaccum, to plant a garden, to cook a meal.
So in conclusion, we look forward to welcoming another bundle of joy in mid June! We find out what the sex of the baby is tomorrow!
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Happenings and Lentil Stew
"MOM! I caught a chicken!!!" It's been a crazy few weeks aroung here. Jonas andthe chickens got sick last week. Separate illnesses. Jonas had a flu bug, most likely from sticking a child strap from a grocery cart in his mouth. YUM! And the chickens had Coccidiosis. Which, as it turns out, is horribly gruesome. The inside of the coop looked like a bloody horror film. I hunted down some Corid (albeit for cattle, but I diluted it in their water and it worked like a charm) and now the girls are back to their old, noisy selves. Still no eggs.
The garden is winding down. Jonas and I are out there every day (per the usual) clearing things out and prepping for the winter garden.
I may (or may not, who can remember these things?) have mentioned that the Mr and I are going to be trying for another baby. Jonas is NOT happy about this and makes no bones about it. He tells me almost daily, "I do not want a new baby to come to our family. Just me!" There are different variations of this. Boy is he in for a rude awakening. But I digress. The reason I bring up the impending pregnancy is that this week I am doing a detox in preparation for it. It's going splendidly! It's not an intense detox or anything, no lemon/syrup/cayenne/water craziness going on. Just super healthy, raw stuff. Well, ok, raw food and beans. Because lets face it, beans are good for you and I'm not going to exclude them. I've been having green smoothies for breakfast, salads for lunch, lots of fruit, and tabbouleh and things for dinner. I'm not playing this detox hard and fast so don't judge me. I had lentil stew last night. It was WONDERFUL! So here's the recipe. Obviously I made a few changes to the recipe so it would be "detox friendly." Veg stock instead of chicken and no bacon. Enjoy!
Monday, August 23, 2010
Chickens
We finally got our crap together and our chickens are here! They are even more awesome than I ever imagined. We only have two right now. Two Rhode Island Reds from my pal Ingrid. (Thanks Ingrid!) We plan on adding one more pullet later.
Jonas named one Brownie -because it's slightly browner than the other chicken. And he named the other Ginger -because it's the name of the main chicken on Chicken Run...and he's a little bit obsessed with that movie. But the name ginger totally fits because the chicken is burnt orange in color.
This kid LOVES the chickens. I'm starting to become slightly worried that he thinks he's a chicken, at least on some level. The chickens roll in the dirt, Jonas rolls in the dirt. The chickens scratch in the compost, Jonas scratches in the compost. The other day he came inside asking for a new shirt...because his current shirt was soaked with filthy chicken water. Oh yeah. He drank it. We monitored him closely for signs of chicken induced diseases for the first few days, because I'm just a little bit paranoid. More than once I've caught Jonas chasing them around with a scrubbing brush (terrorizing is probably a better word) saying that he needed (NEEDED) to brush their hair. What am I going to do with this kid?
The chickens seem very happy. They run to us when they hear our back door open and follow us all over the garden. They finally found the compost today, after exploring the yard for several days. Chicken Heaven. Their favorite place seems to be underneath one of the green bean teepees. Go figure. And their favorite treats are the sprouted legume/grain mixture I've been giving them, and tomatoes they find on the ground.
We've had a few predator run-ins. One morning after letting the chickens out of their coop I went inside to fetch laundry to hang on the line. When I returned there was a hawk watching the chickens from our garage roof. I threw a zucchini at it and it flew away (anyone who says they're overrun with zucchini isn't thinking of ALL it's practical uses). Then THREE more hawks flew out of our neighbors trees. We haven't seen them since but SHEESH! That night a skunk sprayed our coop. The chickens were safe inside but oh my. Who knew that skunk spray smelled like fire at point blank range? Tis true. Mercifully the smell had completely dissipated by the next morning.
In other news...remember my last post, how I rambled on about the strange weather? I've since decided that this blog has magical powers because it has been 100 degrees outside EVERY DAY SINCE. What is that about?
So how are your lives lately? I was having a facebook conversation with my friend Siobhan the other day about chickens. I told her Jonas and I had spent the entire day outside watching the chickens, interspersed with bits of hanging laundry on the washline. Siobhan also has chickens and totally gets how awesome they are. "We're livin' the dream!" I think is an exact quote from that conversation. And we totally are! And while the phrase "livin' the dream" is fine I read a line on another blog today that I like even better, "life right now is dope as hell." Indeed it is.
Jonas named one Brownie -because it's slightly browner than the other chicken. And he named the other Ginger -because it's the name of the main chicken on Chicken Run...and he's a little bit obsessed with that movie. But the name ginger totally fits because the chicken is burnt orange in color.
This kid LOVES the chickens. I'm starting to become slightly worried that he thinks he's a chicken, at least on some level. The chickens roll in the dirt, Jonas rolls in the dirt. The chickens scratch in the compost, Jonas scratches in the compost. The other day he came inside asking for a new shirt...because his current shirt was soaked with filthy chicken water. Oh yeah. He drank it. We monitored him closely for signs of chicken induced diseases for the first few days, because I'm just a little bit paranoid. More than once I've caught Jonas chasing them around with a scrubbing brush (terrorizing is probably a better word) saying that he needed (NEEDED) to brush their hair. What am I going to do with this kid?
The chickens seem very happy. They run to us when they hear our back door open and follow us all over the garden. They finally found the compost today, after exploring the yard for several days. Chicken Heaven. Their favorite place seems to be underneath one of the green bean teepees. Go figure. And their favorite treats are the sprouted legume/grain mixture I've been giving them, and tomatoes they find on the ground.
We've had a few predator run-ins. One morning after letting the chickens out of their coop I went inside to fetch laundry to hang on the line. When I returned there was a hawk watching the chickens from our garage roof. I threw a zucchini at it and it flew away (anyone who says they're overrun with zucchini isn't thinking of ALL it's practical uses). Then THREE more hawks flew out of our neighbors trees. We haven't seen them since but SHEESH! That night a skunk sprayed our coop. The chickens were safe inside but oh my. Who knew that skunk spray smelled like fire at point blank range? Tis true. Mercifully the smell had completely dissipated by the next morning.
In other news...remember my last post, how I rambled on about the strange weather? I've since decided that this blog has magical powers because it has been 100 degrees outside EVERY DAY SINCE. What is that about?
So how are your lives lately? I was having a facebook conversation with my friend Siobhan the other day about chickens. I told her Jonas and I had spent the entire day outside watching the chickens, interspersed with bits of hanging laundry on the washline. Siobhan also has chickens and totally gets how awesome they are. "We're livin' the dream!" I think is an exact quote from that conversation. And we totally are! And while the phrase "livin' the dream" is fine I read a line on another blog today that I like even better, "life right now is dope as hell." Indeed it is.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Summer So Far
I've been a lame-o again. I can't even remember the last time I posted on this blog...and I lack the motivation to go and look at the previous post. Anyway. I've been extremely busy -isn't everyone?
Well over a month ago I went camping for a week with a bunch of girls from our church. It was quite an experience. These were my cabin girls for the week. Sometimes they were awesome, sometimes they were downright rotten. But I loved them through it all. At the end of the week they were awarded the "Night Owl/Party Cabin" award if that gives you any idea of what the week was like.
Here's a shot of me and my pal Cous Cous (no,not her real name) waiting to go home. We were ready.
Camp was fun, but back on the homefront this has been happening every other day. Keeps me busy canning and pickling and roasting and dehydrating and freezing.
The southern california weather this summer has been the strangest I can remember. Perhaps strange is the wrong word, but "cold" doesn't exactly fit either. Anyway, it's been the coldest summer since the 1930's. While not frigid by any means it's still unseasonably cool. 70's most of the time, when it's usually in the 90's and 100's. The plants are loving it. The tomatoes haven't had a bit of blossom drop, there was a small bit of blossom drop with some pole beans but they're back to normal already.
At the beginning of the season I planted equal numbers of small red and yellow tomato plants. Red and Yellow jelly bean tomatoes and red and yellow pear tomatoes. I didn't keep track of which was which, and only planted out the strongest seedlings. I don't know what happened but EVERY SINGLE small tomato plant is yellow. Even the volunteers. Maybe they just like the weather better, or the soil, or the yellow plants are stronger by nature. Whatever happened we're up to our eyeballs in yellow jellybean and pear tomatoes. What a hardship:)
Here's a shot of our sunflowers! I have a spot of soil that is riddled with fusarium wilt. It's hard to find things to plant that are unaffected by it. Sunflowers are one of those things. So voila I planted a bunch of black oil sunflowers to feed our impending chickens. They look beautiful! This is not the best of pictures, they obviously need a good watering. So just take my word for it. Oh, and the bees LOVE them. Hooray for pollination!
Speaking of chickens...
Here's the coop we broke down and purchased. I'm VERY happy with it. While the other coop we received is AWESOME, it needed some work to be chicken ready, and a run, so we just bought this, though we'll probably be keeping the other one as a place for baby chicks when the time comes. Anyway this new coop...LOVE it! Love the size and attached run and pull out tray for cleanup. While the run is small it shouldn't matter too much since we plan on free ranging the chickens and the run will only be used on specific occasions. Plus it's the perfect sized chicken tractor for our yard. The benefits are just endless. Can't wait for the chickens! Can't wait for the eggs. Can't wait for the weed and insect control. Can't wait for the MANURE! Stay tuned.
Well over a month ago I went camping for a week with a bunch of girls from our church. It was quite an experience. These were my cabin girls for the week. Sometimes they were awesome, sometimes they were downright rotten. But I loved them through it all. At the end of the week they were awarded the "Night Owl/Party Cabin" award if that gives you any idea of what the week was like.
Here's a shot of me and my pal Cous Cous (no,not her real name) waiting to go home. We were ready.
Camp was fun, but back on the homefront this has been happening every other day. Keeps me busy canning and pickling and roasting and dehydrating and freezing.
The southern california weather this summer has been the strangest I can remember. Perhaps strange is the wrong word, but "cold" doesn't exactly fit either. Anyway, it's been the coldest summer since the 1930's. While not frigid by any means it's still unseasonably cool. 70's most of the time, when it's usually in the 90's and 100's. The plants are loving it. The tomatoes haven't had a bit of blossom drop, there was a small bit of blossom drop with some pole beans but they're back to normal already.
At the beginning of the season I planted equal numbers of small red and yellow tomato plants. Red and Yellow jelly bean tomatoes and red and yellow pear tomatoes. I didn't keep track of which was which, and only planted out the strongest seedlings. I don't know what happened but EVERY SINGLE small tomato plant is yellow. Even the volunteers. Maybe they just like the weather better, or the soil, or the yellow plants are stronger by nature. Whatever happened we're up to our eyeballs in yellow jellybean and pear tomatoes. What a hardship:)
Here's a shot of our sunflowers! I have a spot of soil that is riddled with fusarium wilt. It's hard to find things to plant that are unaffected by it. Sunflowers are one of those things. So voila I planted a bunch of black oil sunflowers to feed our impending chickens. They look beautiful! This is not the best of pictures, they obviously need a good watering. So just take my word for it. Oh, and the bees LOVE them. Hooray for pollination!
Speaking of chickens...
Here's the coop we broke down and purchased. I'm VERY happy with it. While the other coop we received is AWESOME, it needed some work to be chicken ready, and a run, so we just bought this, though we'll probably be keeping the other one as a place for baby chicks when the time comes. Anyway this new coop...LOVE it! Love the size and attached run and pull out tray for cleanup. While the run is small it shouldn't matter too much since we plan on free ranging the chickens and the run will only be used on specific occasions. Plus it's the perfect sized chicken tractor for our yard. The benefits are just endless. Can't wait for the chickens! Can't wait for the eggs. Can't wait for the weed and insect control. Can't wait for the MANURE! Stay tuned.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Simple Gifts
We are truly blessed people here at the homestead. Seriously. If we want for something it appears. Almost like magic. Almost. But it's not magic, it's our kind family, or neighbors or fellow church goers.
Our washing machine gave up the ghost yesterday. Out of nowhere, it just decided it had had enough of laundry. I hear that, am I right ladies? I had to wash and wring all of the laundry that was midcycle when the washer quit. Of course it was a load of jeans. Sheesh. I have learned the hard way that women of yore had MUCH stronger hands than I. But the father in law called this afternoon and a new one will be here by friday. Amazing? I think so.
I've been thinking about teaching myself some basic piano but have been procrastinating actually doing it because, well, we don't have a piano. It's a dying art it would seem. In our church congregation I think there are two people that play. So they're stretched pretty thin when it comes to playing for meetings. As I've mentioned before I'm partially in charge of the youth in our ward. We always sing acapella in meetings because nobody plays. How sad. A few weeks ago a lovely woman in our ward came up and offered to give us her 90 year old baby grand. She's the wife of the man who gave Jonas the classical music guys. Anyway, it's the cutest piano you've ever seen. I am in LOVE with it. Now to get it to our house.
And the last blessing, that arrived just today. A CHICKEN COOP! As I said in an earlier post we've recently received the go ahead for chickens. On Friday my husband's boss, who also lives around the corner from us -and across the street from the inlaws- offered to give us his chicken coop. He built it himself and I am impressed. He and the hubs brought it down today and it is a thing of beauty to me. I took pictures but, alas, they won't load since Greg installed some sort of somethin' when he got a new camera for his birthday. Boo. But the pictures will be up soon. And you can all voice an opinion on what color I should paint it. I'm thinking yellow, but don't let that sway you.
Anyone else out there feeling blessed?
Our washing machine gave up the ghost yesterday. Out of nowhere, it just decided it had had enough of laundry. I hear that, am I right ladies? I had to wash and wring all of the laundry that was midcycle when the washer quit. Of course it was a load of jeans. Sheesh. I have learned the hard way that women of yore had MUCH stronger hands than I. But the father in law called this afternoon and a new one will be here by friday. Amazing? I think so.
I've been thinking about teaching myself some basic piano but have been procrastinating actually doing it because, well, we don't have a piano. It's a dying art it would seem. In our church congregation I think there are two people that play. So they're stretched pretty thin when it comes to playing for meetings. As I've mentioned before I'm partially in charge of the youth in our ward. We always sing acapella in meetings because nobody plays. How sad. A few weeks ago a lovely woman in our ward came up and offered to give us her 90 year old baby grand. She's the wife of the man who gave Jonas the classical music guys. Anyway, it's the cutest piano you've ever seen. I am in LOVE with it. Now to get it to our house.
And the last blessing, that arrived just today. A CHICKEN COOP! As I said in an earlier post we've recently received the go ahead for chickens. On Friday my husband's boss, who also lives around the corner from us -and across the street from the inlaws- offered to give us his chicken coop. He built it himself and I am impressed. He and the hubs brought it down today and it is a thing of beauty to me. I took pictures but, alas, they won't load since Greg installed some sort of somethin' when he got a new camera for his birthday. Boo. But the pictures will be up soon. And you can all voice an opinion on what color I should paint it. I'm thinking yellow, but don't let that sway you.
Anyone else out there feeling blessed?
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Hands Down Most Awesomest Free Knit/Crochet Pattern Site EVER!
I was reading a blog post a few days ago by a woman who lives in CALIFORNIA. She was very concerned about the impending winter (uhhhh...). To the point that she couldn't enjoy the beautiful weather we are enjoying. I'm sure you are all as befuddled as I am...impending winter, it's june! Also, winter in so cal, not that terrifying...quite balmy actually. So she's probably a bit nutty. My husband probably thinks I"m a bit nutty too. Here's why. A few days ago I started crocheting something. Nothing out of the usual there. The hubs asked what I was making, and when I told him it was a sweater his response was...OOOOOOOK. He left off the "weirdo." But I knew it was implied:) But what better time to crochet (or knit) a wonderful winter sweater than while you're enjoying crappy summer television?! Also, sweaters don't crochet (or knit) up fast people! So by the time I'm done it'll be time for wearin'! Perfect.
I searched and searched and SEARCHED online for the perfect sweater pattern. Nice crochet sweater patterns are hard to find, and if I'm gonna put the effort into it, I better be flippin thrilled with it, am I right? After stumbling through lots of free sweater pattern sites I finally hit upon this beauty and I HAVE to share it with you. I don't know why I didn't find it sooner but it is heads and tails above the other free pattern sites. Seriously it makes the other free patterns look like something the cat dragged in. I practically bookmarked every project, and there are hundreds! My absolute favorites are all knit sweaters but I'm just not advanced enough in knitting yet to attempt an adult sweater. But crochet is another story. While this is my fave.
I also LOVE this little number and it's what I finally settled on (sans the buttons, I've got different buttons in mind. And it's not grayish but off white) 
It's great because I plan to be expecting our number two little bundle of joy come this winter and I think this sweater will accomodate that nicely.
So enjoy the site! You're welcome.
I searched and searched and SEARCHED online for the perfect sweater pattern. Nice crochet sweater patterns are hard to find, and if I'm gonna put the effort into it, I better be flippin thrilled with it, am I right? After stumbling through lots of free sweater pattern sites I finally hit upon this beauty and I HAVE to share it with you. I don't know why I didn't find it sooner but it is heads and tails above the other free pattern sites. Seriously it makes the other free patterns look like something the cat dragged in. I practically bookmarked every project, and there are hundreds! My absolute favorites are all knit sweaters but I'm just not advanced enough in knitting yet to attempt an adult sweater. But crochet is another story. While this is my fave.
I also LOVE this little number and it's what I finally settled on (sans the buttons, I've got different buttons in mind. And it's not grayish but off white) 
It's great because I plan to be expecting our number two little bundle of joy come this winter and I think this sweater will accomodate that nicely.So enjoy the site! You're welcome.
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