Hibernation

It is so cold out.

See? Not making it up. That's really freaking cold. And in case you're trying to do the Celsius to Fahrenheit conversion? Don't bother. Because -40 is minus 40 is -40. That's where the scales intersect. It's cold.

So today we stayed in. We baked.

And before you start thinking my blog is turning into one of those shiny ones... Here's the part I hadn't yet taken out of the oven.

Yeah... That cranberry bread is a little... mauled. It really did not look done yet. But apparently it was more than done on the bottom, because I had to yank it out of the pan and it did not turn out well.

Anyways. It still tastes fantastic. Lemon Cranberry Bread with a lemon glaze.... so good. It's cake, posing as bread. But yeah, I'm hoping next time I don't let it get so overdone. 

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In which I am the permissive one.

Today we all napped. And it was glorious. And when we all woke up at 5pm and I really just wanted to finish my book, I let them sit on the kitchen counter and eat cookies and milk (a mere hour before dinner) and shhhh don't tell Nate.


Not very wordy today. Working on getting my 365project going. Setting up a new blog for it. Running into your regular issues- I don't remember who hosts my website, I can't remember any of my passwords, I get error messages of which I understand nothing beyond the "you have an error" bit of it... But I shall persevere! I will add a photo-a-day blog to my every growing list of things to try and keep up with!

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2012.

A new year. A new start.

Or, maybe just more of the same. I kind of half-decided I want to attempt a 365project this year, in order to continuously push myself to become a better photographer. But it's already the 7th and I sort of haven't shot anything yet. Hardly an auspicious beginning.

Also, I have yet to decide on any concrete resolutions. Again, it doesn't bode well for my stick-to-it-ive-ness if it takes me more than a week to even MAKE my resolutions. I guess if I can manage to flounder through another year and keep myself and my children alive, I'll take it as a win?

Today I made my bed. That's good. And cleaned off my desk. A MAJOR accomplishment. Maybe by the time the weekend is out I'll manage grocery shopping? I did a pretty good job clearing out all the food in the house before our trip, which means our meals since we got back two days ago have been... odd, to say the least. Today for lunch we had hot dogs wrapped in tortillas. With peas on the side. I have a feeling we will have to have something delivered for dinner. Again.

Here's to making it through another day!

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Walking that fine line between lame and AWESOME.

Sometimes I think of an idea and it is so super cool, and then halfway through doing it I realize it's kind of lame. Then I think, maybe it's so lame it's cool, then I think "you're overthinking things", then I decide I don't care because I FEEL LIKE MAKING SUGAR COOKIES SHAPED LIKE HOCKEY MASCOTS AND PIPING ICING ONTO OREOS TO MAKE THEM LOOK LIKE HOCKEY PUCKS FOR THE STANLEY CUP FINALS. And I don't care how room-mother-ish that is. Also, caps-style yelling.

Boston Bruins vs. Vancouver Canucks (orcas? def had to google that one)

And then today it was rainy again and we went to the science museum and then when Nate got home we all put on our rainboots and splashed in the puddles in the lane and THAT was undeniable PURE awesome.

Walking with Mama

Teaching baby sister to splash and jump.

Yelling hello to the turtles. Yes. The TMNT.

Kisses for Daddy.

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Just call me Suzy.

There are just some days when it all comes together. Morning starts with 2-yr old coming in to snuggle with Mama and Daddy. The most heartmelting moment was when I came back from the bathroom to see her hugging Nate, and she looked up at me and said, "Look, Mama! Daddy's my friend!"

Downstairs. Make amaaaaaaaazing oatmeal for breakfast.

Frozen fruit means I can have berries like normal people!!!

Pack lunch for Nate, then begin making banana chocolate chip muffins.

My girlie loves to "hulp".

Make homemade dough for tonight's pizza. So excited about that.

Using my Kitchenaid mixer makes me feel grownup. Also, my little kidlet was eating flour by the spoonful while my back was turned? Flour? Really, kid? You're such a little weirdo!

Sit on floor, drinking coffee and playing with babies while they eat muffins.

This napkin may have been lifted from Nancy Chang's during my rehearsal dinner. I'm just saying that that is possible.

Let's pretend she didn't just find that muffin halfway underneath the dishwasher...

And so on.

I don't have many days that make me feel like I have a real handle on this "being the little wife" homemakery thing. I'm not a natural at the cooking and the cleaning and the grocery shopping (oh, the grocery shopping). But it is my job right now, and I think I could probably put in more effort than I typically do. So here's my start at doing that. I'm not saying I'll suddenly start cooking meals from scratch every night, or that the house will always be spotless, but I'm going to put in a concerted effort.

And hey, I've made my bed every day this week, so I think I'm already on my way.

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Monday- A Play in Three Parts

Act 1: In which I wake up in good mood, prepare a healthy breakfast for my children, pack a healthy lunch for my husband, clean the entire kitchen, carry all laundry to the basement, and get a healthy dinner in the slowcooker, all before I even have my coffee.

Act 2: Wherein we discover that there is only enough laundry soap for one load (there are 5 loads to be done), the baby smears pb&j in her hair and requires a bath prior to naptime, and we find out that the "ranch dressing" I put into the aforementioned sack lunch was actually leftover clam chowder.

Act 3: Our hero (that would be me) seriously considers having donuts and wine for lunch, but decides against it. Because we have no more wine.

Happy Monday, all.

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Ugh.

So, I haven't really been sleeping. And I can't even blame it on either baby, they're (knock on wood) pretty good sleepers. Fiona rarely wakes up during the night, and Violet, well, we're still co-sleeping/nursing, so most of the time all it takes is for me to roll over and stuff a boob in her mouth and she's back out.

Once I'm asleep, I sleep just fine. I slept through my alarm TWICE this week, which really sucks because as a babysitter, I'm not the only one that's late. My tardiness has a ripple effect on my employers. I did get there on time today though, so that was good.

It's the falling asleep that's the problem. It started Saturday, when I didn't fall asleep until 5am. Sunday it was 3. Monday and Tuesday 2, and last night about 2:30. Which really doesn't work out so well, when you consider that I have to be up for work at 6:30. Last night I was fiiiiiiiiinally falling asleep, and then I heard Fiona very clearly say "Mama?" and it sounded like she was right in the doorway of our room and I was like "How in the hell did she get out of her crib?" and so I tried to answer her but I couldn't make any noise and I realized I was asleep so I WOKE myself up with a start and said "go back to bed, honey" at which point Nate rolled over and mumbled something to the effect of "Did you say something?" But of course she wasn't in the doorway. She was asleep. In her crib. Like a normal person. And I now had to begin the process of falling asleep all over again.

It's really starting to be a problem. I can sometimes grab a little nap during the day, but it's hard to time things to make that happen. I forgo the old adage "Sleep when the baby sleeps", and substitute my own version, which is usually something along the lines of "Sleep while the one baby sleeps and the other baby is strapped in to her high chair eating a freeze-pop and watching Yo Gabba Gabba". It works.

Except when it doesn't. Today was a big day. Grocery shopping day. I've been meaning to go since we got home from MA a week ago. I was understandably nervous about this trip, because it was to be my first time going alone with both the girls. And we all know how I feel about grocery shopping anyways...(ps, Wegman's carts still suck. Who thought it would be a good idea to redesign them so that they can hold LESS groceries?) (oh, and shoutout to the very cool woman who was shopping with her 6-month-old, who told me that her older daughter was 2 also, and gave me nice words of encouragement.) (I would also like to send an ANTI-shoutout to the meddlesome old lady who stopped and told me that she "...hopes I don't take this the wrong way, but she has 4 children, so she knows... The baby in there[my Moby wrap which I LOVE], it's not safe. It's breathing it's own air. I don't mean to interfere, but I just love babies!" Really, lady? You think I don't? Hello, it's a freaking PIECE OF FABRIC that is actually QUITE open up near her head. She can breath. Thanks. Go choke on a prune.)

Where was I. Grocery shopping. So whatever, I finally did the shopping, it was largely uneventful. Which of course meant I was SUPER proud of myself and seriously called three people and was all "dooood I went grocery shopping! Aren't I awesome! Aren't you proud of me? What? You have to go? You don't actually care? You shop for groceries too? Oh." And then I remembered that my life must be pretty boring if grocery shopping is exciting. And then I figured I hadn't bored enough people yet, so I better blog about it, too! Yay!

Oh, I had a doctor appt this afternoon, too. Which I scheduled for 2pm. Cause it's always nice to have an appointment smack in the middle of nap time.

I had big plans for dinner (yummy but fairly simple-to-make spicy orange glazed chicken and green beans and corn bread), but between the shopping and the waking babies up from naps to go the doctors office, and the whole 4 hours of sleep I got last night (in two 2-hour chunks), I was totally beat. When Nate got home I just went into the kitchen and started grabbing things for dinner. Chicken nuggets. Oooh, French fries. Here, have this leftover white cheddar mac&cheese. Oh, a vegetable...let's see, we've got... corn. As I set Fiona's plate down on her tray, I realized I was serving them chicken and three different kinds of starch. Plus milk. Awesome. The meal was so white it was blinding. (Well, it wasn't all like white white, it was more a mix of white, yellow, and light brown, but same thing.) Never a good thing, having a monochromatic meal like that.

So I did the only thing I could do; I started crying about serving three starches at one meal. Cause that's normal.

I really hope I sleep tonight.

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Just like her Mama

Well, we've hit another milestone today. Fiona made a boy cry. I'm not entirely sure what happened, they were kind of like riiiiiight out of my line of vision, over to the side of the chair I was sitting on. But, yeah. We went to a new playgroup today, one we hadn't been to and didn't know anyone, so as usual it was kind of awkward at first. The other mothers were nice enough, the kids were all right around Fiona's age (which meant nobody really wanted to play with anyone else, they all just kind of played in the same general area), and we were having a pretty good time what with the goldfish crackers and the coffee. (It doesn't take much to make Fi and I happy, obviously)

Anyways. The incident. It may have actually been nothing, maybe she bumped into the kid, maybe she grabbed, maybe she tried to "share". All I know is that by the time I turned around, his snack cup was on the ground, amidst a small pile of goldfish crackers that Fiona was promptly hoovering up for us. She's good like that. This kid looks at her, and just dissolved into tears. He didn't seem like a particularly whiny kid up to that point, which is why I'd put money on her grabbing those fishies away from him like the little pint-sized bully she apparently is. I wasn't quite sure how to handle it, though. We removed the fishies from the situation, and the little boy's mother came over and was just like "looks like somebody's getting tired" and picked him up, it was really a non-event. But I kinda felt bad. I mean, she's small, and from experience I know that you've got to have a certain level of toughness to combat that, but I don't want her picking on boys when she's in the fourth grade, stepping on their feet or elbowing them when they're behind her in line, thus making them cry and calling them crybaby in front of everyone, or hitting them in the face with a windup Ghostbusters toy when they sit behind her on the school bus (repeat crying and namecalling). Not that I did anything like that when I was little. Poor kid. He really was a crybaby, but he probably just had a crush on me, and I used to torment the living crap out of him.

But I digress.

So, we've had our first bullying incident. I'm hoping that the next time something like this happens, I'll actually see it and be able to better gauge the seriousness of the situation, and deal with it appropriately. Cause she's gonna have to learn to be nicer. I don't want her biting the baby. Again, not that I did that to my sister or anything...

Today after playgroup we got home for naptime annnnnnnnd.... no nap. So I got her up from her crib, and we ate lunch and played and sang and danced and played and read stories and I though for SURE she'll sleep now annnnnnnd she slept for like 45 minutes. Which is not nearly enough. So tonight was a cranky evening for us here at the LaMartina household, even more so once Nate called and said he was gonna have to stay at work a bit later than normal...

But I still somehow managed to get dinner on the table! Cause I made one of the recipes out of my new crockpot cookbook! And since dinner was already halfway made by 1pm, it made it much easier to just throw together some mashed potatoes and microwave some carrots once Nate did get home. So, we had a delicious homecooked meal for the second night in a row. That's right, y'all. I cooked last night, too. Shake-n-bake chicken and oven roasted potatoes and broccoli. AND made banana muffins for this morning's playgroup. With whole wheat flour, none the less! Look at me go.

Now babygirl is sleeping, and the boys are downstairs having a beer/halo/microwave pizza/"forget we are husbands and fathers and kick back like we're in college type" of evening. I've been banished to the upstairs lest I break that fantasy, but it's all good. I've got my cup of tea, I've got my little stack of shortbread cookies, I've got my book. I'm gonna chill out and then go to bed early. And I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty excited about that.

edited to add: My cup of tea got cold as I typed up this post. So I went downstairs to throw it in the microwave and ran back upstairs to take out contacts/wash my face/change into pajamas while the tea heated up again. I hear a knock on the bathroom door, it's the hubs. He saw me put the tea in the microwave and walk back upstairs, and, since he knows my tendency to forget about it and leave it in there until it's cold again (gah, yes Mom, I do that too now, sorry for making fun of you all those years), he brought it upstairs to me. So even on his guy's night in he's looking out for and taking care of me. Love that man.

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Cookies

Nate and I started dating a little over 4 years ago. Obviously, we have learned many things about each other since then. He knows that I sometimes chew with my mouth open, I know that he leaves dirty socks EVERYWHERE, he know I like to always have a glass of water at bedtime and I know that he can sometimes soothe a headache by flossing his teeth.

So when I went to order this year's batch of Girl Scout cookies, I confidently ordered a box of my favorites (Samoas), a box of his favorites (Tagalongs), a box of Thin Mints (cause I think that's a law, that you have to), and a box of Trefoils (because they go so well with a nice cup of tea). The cookies got here, hurrah, and I occasionally put a few Tagalongs in with his lunch, while saving the Samoas for myself because I do love them so.

The other night I was at the grocery store, buying some ice cream in celebration of our having a working freezer once again (!) and I saw that Edy's was on sale! And that they had limited edition Girl Scout Cookie flavors! Nate loves limited edition ice cream flavors! Perfect! I grabbed 2 cartons- Samoas and Tagalongs. Our favorites. Raced home all excited, pulled them out of the grocery bag, all "Look, look what I got! Aren't you thrilled??!?!"

A bit later, once the baby was in bed and we went to dish up the ice cream, I was surprised to see Nate opening up the Samoa ice cream first. I was a bit peeved. Here I was, I bought his favorite kind for him, and he doesn't even want to try it? What the hell is that about. So I asked him, "I bought the Tagalong kind especially for you, don't you want that?"

And he says "yeah, but Samoas are my favorite, so I wanted to try this kind first."

???????

Really? If I didn't know what his favorite was, that would be totally understandable. I mean, it's not a requirement to know things like favorite cookie flavor. But I was SO SURE about it. I felt like SUCH an idiot. Here I was, hoarding the Samoas for myself, completely without guilt because hey, I bought him a box of his favorites and I haven't had a single one. Fair is fair. Now I find out that nope. Dead wrong. You think you know someone...

I would also like to report that while I have not yet managed to go grocery shopping, I did go and pick up all our frozen/defrosted/refrozen into solid blocks foods, so we have some options for mealtimes again. And so tonight in keeping with my decision to do better about making dinner, I made dinner. I had a little helper. It was adorable.

Don't worry Gramma, I didn't actually let her take anything out. She just wanted to wear the mitts and walk around the kitchen saying "Hot hot hot" every time I opened the oven.

And Nate- I'm sorry for hogging all the Samoa goodness for the past four years. I'll be sure to put some in your lunch tomorrow.

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March

February has come and gone, with it tons and tons and feet of snow, most of which has now melted. Our tiny little yard looked like a battleground after the snow disappeared... big tree branches all over the place, a thousand little piles of dog turds, not to mention all the pine needles and leaves that we never raked up in the fall... Nate and I spent all this past weekend (which was GORGEOUS) outside raking and raking and bagging and it looks so much better now, even if there still isn't any grass...

Last week we also had an interesting couple of days when our fridge decided, after months of making this really annoying loud clonking noise, to die completely. Of course, I didn't realize it until it had been dead for so long that all the frozen food was totally defrosted...thank goodness for friends with deep freezers with space. All the fridge food was loaded into coolers with bags and bags of ice... this was Thursday. They finally delivered our new fridge yesterday, and it's so shiny and clean and new and COLD and it's just fantastic.

This morning Nate took off work and the three of us went to a Rocknoceros concert at Jammin' Java. Sounds kinda lame, but it's actually a really good time. Babygirl is slow to warm up to the idea of concert, staying close to Mama and Daddy at first, but after a while she enjoys getting up there and being part of the action.






Fi wasn't SO much into the dancing while I was shooting this little video, she was a bit more intent on sticking her hand inside the back of her diaper. Which was actually kind of embarassing. She has become kinda fascinated with that lately. In the past couple weeks, we've had three instances of "I'm done napping and now I think it would be fun to reach into my dirty diaper and make a poop painting on the sheets of my crib..wheeee Mama isn't this fun!??!?!" Yesterday she tried it at the end of her morning nap, but was thwarted by the zip-up footie pajamas. Although she made a valiant effort and managed to get one arm outside of jammies. She is too much.



In completely unrelated news, I haven't given any updates regarding baby numero dos recently... that's probably because everything is progressing just fine, no issues beyond the fact that I'm a little anemic and tend to be a bit hypoglycemic. Neither of which is surprising, I've always tended that way. Just means I need to eat frequent small meals and take an iron pill. I'm also supposed to take it easy on things like sugar and white flour and simple carbs... all those things that make up delicious snacks. Instead I have to do proteiny complex carb things. Like wheat pitas and hummus. And hardboiled eggs. Which isn't as delicious as bagels or candy, but still pretty good. I'm 30 weeks along now, so we have entered the final stretch, the final 10 weeks. I'm actually counting down using LOST episodes, because there are only 10 left till the end... the final episode is slated to air May 23rd, and I'm slated to have this kid May 18th. We'll just have to wait and see which finishes first- this pregnancy, or a show that we belatedly only got into last summer and has sucked us in like none other. I've got my next appt in a week, I'll od my best to update again at that point, maybe even including a how much have a gained type update?

I've also decided to become better about cooking dinner again. I was doing so well back in the fall, and then it fell away to NOTHING. I saw this cookbook in the checkout aisle at the grocery store (I fall for that stuff Every. Time.) and it caught my eye. "Fix It and Forget It. 200 Slowcooker recipes using 5 ingredients or less." The way I see it- I have both energy and time in the mornings. In the evenings I've got time, but I'm also usually beat. Getting up the energy to make dinner just seems like a monumentous effort. So if I slowcooker it, I can prepare dinner earlier in the day when I've still got some get up and go and then I can still be tired and blargh in the late afternoon and yet manage to get some actual dinner on the table. I went through the book and marked a bunch of recipes that looked tasty, added the ingredients to my shopping list, so we'll see how it all turns out... I'm hopeful.

On that note, I need to go get a little snack and then maybe a bit of a nap while Fi is still sleeping... here's hoping.

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Sandwiches.

In case any of you missed the news, we are currently working on BabyLaMartina version 2.0. Which is to say, I'm pregnant again.

We are officially in the second trimester, which means all the sickieness is pretty much gone (huzzah!) but I've still got food issues. This happened last time, too. People say, oh, you're pregnant, eating for two, you must just be hungry all the time! Uhhhhh, not so much. Mostly I just don't feel like eating. Even now that I'm not feeling queasy 24/7, most food is just unappetizing. So when I stumble upon something that sounds good, I tend to eat it every meal for like a week. I've been eating a lot of ham egg and cheese sandwiches. And baked potatoes. And turkey sandwiches. Annnnd thats pretty much my entire diet, right there. It's got plenty of variety and nutrition, right? Shut up. It does. End of story.

The thing that sucks is that I tend to run out of things pretty quickly. The thing that DOESN'T suck is my hubs. Who will run to the store for me an embarrassing number of times. Like that time he ate up the end of the cheddar cheese and after my brief OHNOTHEREISNOCHEESEFORMYBAKEDPOTATO fit, he happily volunteered to run to the store to grab some more for me. Aww. What a sweetheart. But it gets better. Last night, we were talking about dinner, and I settled on my usual turkey sandwich. The trouble was- we were out of pickles. And I MUST have pickles on my sandwich. I'm very particular about sandwich construction. So my love ran to the grocery store to pick up some pickles, and he also got a couple other things we were running low on. Not only that, but he took the little chickadee with him. She loves to go to the store. And he gets mad compliments from everyone about how cute she is (especially when he carries her around in the little basket instead of getting a cart, which apparently happened last night). So they get home and YAY I have pickles and I can make my sandwich and then I realize- we have no more chips. And not only am I particular about my sandwich, I'm particular about the entire sandwich meal, including presentation and sides. And currently "my meal" consists of the sandwich (on a bulkie roll, cut in half), arranged on the plate with a small pile of baked Ruffles in the middle, sour cream and onion dip, the "tropical mix" of canned fruit (which is pineapples and papayas), and a drink. The drink is the only thing that varies. Sometimes water, sometimes milk, sometimes ginger ale. In any case, I am now distraught because a big piece of my meal (the chips) is now not available. I really did try to shake it off and prepare my dinner without them, but I guess I was kind of moping around? Cause Nate offered to head BACK out to the store to get my chips. This boy, I tell you what. He is the best.

Anyways. I've got to end here. I hear Nate and Fiona coming home from the store now... I hope he remembered to pick up milk...

This boy, I loves him.

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Moar Food.

Made two new recipes since I last wrote. Tuesday I totally wimped out on the grocery shopping front and Nate picked up a delicious frozen pizza for dinner, which I enjoyed immensely. But yesterday I managed to drag my ass out there and so for dinner we had-

Pork Chops with Garlicky Broccoli

I've never made pork chops with the bone in them before, it was a new experience. This is also the first time I've made pork chops that they weren't totally dried out. Plus, the broccoli (made with garlic and soy sauce) was totally delish.

Today was absolutely miserable. Rainy and cold and just blech. Fiona and I did manage to make it out to playgroup, which was fanTAStic, just to be out of the house for awhile, and to be someplace warm. You see, our landlady has this contract with this company, and they come out every fall to check the furnace and every spring to check the A/C. Great, right? That she's so on top of things? She gave me the number of the company to call and set up the appointment for them to come out, and she very specifically said to make sure they check the furnace before we use it. "Oh, of course!" says I. "No problem!"

And then we went on vacation and I kind of forgot all about calling to make that appointment. When we got home from vacation and settled, I realized that oh yeah, it is October and we'll probably be needing to turn the heat on soon, so the other day I called to set up the appointment, thinking they would come out sometime next week. Wellllllll... the first available appointment slot they have is November 4th. Which um.. yeah. It was cold today. It's gonna keep on getting colder. Not particularly thrilled about the situation. The temp in here dropped as low as 64 degrees today, which sounds like a decent temp, but its actually quite chilly. If it gets much colder than that, I might call the company and just be like "uh, is it okay if we turn the heat on before you come inspect the furnace? Or will that totally screw things up?" Cause damn.

In any case, this evening I set Fiona in the living room, turned on the Sesame Street, and went into the kitchen to start some meal prep. She was happy as can be in there, but as it turned out, she wasn't so much watching the show as pulling out a half a box of tissues and strewing them about the room. And playing with my phone.

Trouble.

So the whole idea of making dinner was put on hold until Nate got home, so he could play with her and I could get dinner made. Tonight was yet another first for me. I made steak. Which I've never done.

Steak with Potato-Parsnip Mash

Another new thing? Parsnips. When I came to parsnips on my grocery list, I had no stinkin' clue where to look. I didn't know what color they were, what they were shaped like, or where in the produce department even to look. Turns out they kind of look like whitish yellow carrots, and are extremely tasty mashed up with potatoes and scallions. Another resoundingly successful dinner.

And my friends, that's not all. I also made a yummy smelling marinade from some of that leftover rosemary and some garlic- and tomorrow evening's chicken is already in the fridge soaking it in.

But wait, there's more! The bananas I bought yesterday turned brown SUPER fast, so tonight after the little chickadee was in bed, I decided to make banana bread. Which I have never made before in my life but is starting to fill the house with a delicious smell.

I'm almost starting to get nervous. What happened to myself and who is this little Suzy Homemaker?

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Finally Fall

Well, we've been back from vacation for about a week and a half, which means I've finally got almost all the dirty laundry done, and the suitcases have at least been brought upstairs to the bedrooms... not fully unpacked though. They seem to have somehow refilled themselves with clean clothes... not entirely sure how that works, but I'm hoping to tackle those today.

The big news is- I've started something new. I've started cooking much more frequently. And new dishes, too! Things I've never done before! I saw this magazine, and on the cover it said "Meals for a Month" and it had all the recipes and weekly shopping lists and I was just so impressed that I bought it right there in the checkout aisle. After I bought it and flipped through, I realized that most the recipes seemed easy enough, and like things we would actually eat, so I decided to follow it. Last week I went to the grocery store and bought weird things like bok choy and shallots and chili-ginger sauce. I bought things I have never actually cooked myself, like chicken drumsticks and pork tenderloin. And I followed it. That's right, kids. 1. I actually made 5 new recipes in the last week, and 2. This blog has officially descended to that level of mommybloggerdom where I can only talk about kids and what I made for dinner. So sue me. But first enjoy all the pictures of the yummy meals.

Monday- Tilapia with peppers.

It was supposed to have olives in it too, but we cut those out cause we no like em.

Tuesday - Beef and Bok Choy Stir-Fry

And yes, I made the stir fry sauce from scratch.

Wednesday- Spicy Orange Glazed Drumsticks with Green Beans

I think this was our favorite meal of the week. Very very delish.

Friday- Roasted Pork with Brussels Sprouts and Apricots

This should have been Thursday's dinner, but we were very excited about the post-season starting, and so had a ballpark type meal of hot dogs, pretzels, and nachos. So the pork got bumped to Friday. It was okay, but none of us were crazy about the brussels sprouts. When I reheated the leftover pork on Sunday, I made some homemade applesauce with it and we liked that much better.

Monday- Fettucini with Sweet Potatoes and Ricotta

Another meal that got bumped back a few days due to various reasons. But it was quite yummy and I'm actually eating some of the leftovers now for my lunch.

I have to be honest, I'm pretty damn impressed with myself. I have every intention of continuing with the recipes in the book, though I might stray from them a little bit this week, cause I've got some ingredients left over that need to be used up before they go bad. So I might have to even get creative. This is most definitely a side of me that I've never seen before, and it's pretty interesting.

In closing, enjoy a few pictures of Fiona unloading the dishwasher. She's quite the little helper.

ps. I'm still pissed about stupid Crapelbon blowing that game on Sunday. Friggin' Red Sox, man. They just break your heart. Go Phillies.

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Awesome Thursday, continued.

Well kids, it's been less than a week since I've been here. I'm improving, see? Of course, what I really should be doing now is going to bed... but one thing at a time.

For now, I give you a few glimpes into last Thursday. After the previous blog post, the one I made on Thursday morning, my day just kept being awesome. Played with the baby, took a whole mess of photos, including the ones you're about to see. Because yes. This is primarily a photo entry. Like it.

After lunch, the child thoroughly inspected the dog's water dish. After she tipped it over the first time, I didn't even bother to refill it, and it's a good thing. Because this happened-

Then, she ate a coffee bean-

and got into all the pots and pans.

After that, I knew she could not be trusted while I cooked dinner in my new wok (!) so she was banished to the high chair, occupied with a tray full of cheerios, and I set to work making some chicken stir-fry for dinner. And taking pictures of the aforementioned dinner. I couldn't resist.

An empty, brand new wok, a semi-impulse purchase from Ikea.

And a baby that says "Why I no can help, momma? I iz a good cook!"

May I introduce my assistants, Mr. Rice Cooker and Ms. "Stir-fry sauce" Packet?

Check it out, Booden. And you think I can't cook to save my life.

They totally smelled what I was cooking.

And pup patiently waited at Nate's feet, willing him to drop something.

fin.

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