Smoothies!!

My new favorite healthy food is smoothies. I drink one just about everyday because I can just pack it full of good stuff and get all my fruits in one shot. This is what I put in one a while back and it was THE.BEST.SMOOTHIE.EVER.

It was a LOT of smoothie. So I got two days worth. YUM!!

If you haven't tried that yogurt from Trader Joe's yet, DO IT! It's great for kids because it's full fat and it tastes oh so creamy. It comes in a six pack, 3 vanilla with 3 blueberry or 3 banana with 3 strawberry. I bought it for Josey, and since I made these to also share with him, so it's okay I stole it from him. :-)

Home made egg mac muffins

Does anyone remember Beakman's World? That was my favorite show when I was a kid. Way better than Bill Nye. Hands down. I learned so much from that show. I don't remember much of it, but one thing that ALWAYS stuck with me was their segment on how to make egg sandwiches much like the ones you'd find at a major fast food restaurant. I made them once and never forgot them.

Now, I'm not a big consumer of these, so I never made them for myself, but the skill proved
 useful when I got married. During our whirlwind courtship, I learned that
Sam ate these every morning with a glass of oj.

As I took over the shopping when we got married, I learned that those were spendy! I could make these for so much cheaper, so I did. Here's how you do it:

Sam likes his english muffins toasted, so that's where I start. Otherwise, he says, they are a little soggy by the time he gets to them.

• As that's toasting, I scramble one egg in this glass, that just so happens to be the right circumference as the muffin. I microwave it for 40 seconds. This took some trial and error to find the right time that cooked the egg enough without exploding it. I was bummed when my trusty microwave almost caught fire (not because of doing this! It was like ten years old.) I had to find that sweet spot all over again.

• I put shredded cheese (Sam prefers the hot pepper kind) on the hot muffin when it pops, top it with the egg (that I gently loosen with a fork around the edges to get it out of the glass) a frozen sausage patty, and the other half of the muffin. I wrap it up in a paper towel and stick it in the fridge for the morning.

Sam just has to heat it up for 55 seconds on high and it's ready to rock!

A promise kept!

I said I’d share this, and it’ll be worth the wait!

A recap: I love yummy snacks. I am frugal. I love making things from scratch. So when my friend told me about these bars, I was so excited to try them out myself! She linked me to this website, and from there I did a little searching and found this one to be my inspiration. If you search around her site, you can find all sorts of variations that are SO YUMMY!!

I made them as my friend did first.

I got 1 pound of bulk, dry roasted, unsalted cashews and 2 pounds of pitted dates, also in the bulk section. The first time I put all the dates in my food processor and the cashews in my mini chopper and hand mixed everything together in a big bowl. It was really messy. The next time I just threw everything in together and it mixed it all up quite nicely. I pressed it into this glass container that has a lid and I keep it in the fridge. Now for the fun part...

I'm a sucker for anything chocolate mint. So of course I added a little: 

I added 3 TBSP of the cocoa and maybe a TSP or two of the peppermint extract.

Josey and the boys love them, too, so the chocolate ones only come out when no one else is around!    

Where'd the time go?

You know how I said I was going to post about this fabulous recipe I found, but I couldn’t because I had to get to bed? Yeah, then the rest of life happened. I’ve really got to plan my time better. I’m thinking one of those written out schedules that Supernanny always brings in and has the parents write up on bright colored poster board and post up in the main area of the house so everyone can see it and abide by it.

I’m also thinking this would be beneficial for the Saturdays when Sam has nothing going on but to take over parenting duties completely, allowing me to sleep in, get my chores done, have some really good quiet time to get my bible study homework done. That was today. In my best efforts not to be a micro manager, lots of things didn’t get done, but Josey was happy and alive, no diapers leaked, so it was a success. Daddy is really good at playing and making sure Mommy is undisturbed. Eventually I missed him so much that I stole him away to the fabric store to figure out something as far as a Halloween costume.

I have a terrible time being consistent. I am the last person you want making a schedule and sticking to it. Well, I’m pretty good at keeping one that’s already established, but if I don’t have to have one, I’m probably not going to start one. I’m pretty sure I have to have one, now. As a nanny, I know our days at work go best if we stick to the schedule. I’m all over that at work. I don’t mess with the schedule. I’m not militant about it, but I’m not stretching them to go to storytime just because I think it’s cute to watch them dance and sing with the other kids. Nope, not doing it. It’s a disaster come naptime when it’s pushed an hour back. Now that Josey is a little older, he’s getting to be a little less flexible as well.  

Kids thrive on structure. I’m a very go-with-the-flow type.  Getting these things on paper would really help remind me what to do when on the days we are at home. Playtime here. Snack time there. Potty time after this… My poor kid doesn’t know what’s coming next, and really, neither do I. It’s fine now, but I can just see how this is going to become a problem soon.

All that to say, maybe if my day was more structured, I’d be able to fit more into it, including time to blog on a regular basis about yummy things and cute stuff my kid does. Benefits all around.

Sweet, frugal, deliciousness

I'm going to make this short because a) it's 10:45pm and I have to work in the morning, b) I'm already tired, and c) I don't have pictures to enhance this post but I don't want to forget it! I will elaborate another day.

I have for the past couple of years been searching for recipes to make my own healthy snack foods because, let's face it, I am one frugal girl. It started with granola bars (sort of) using and tweaking a recipe I found online. Then I added smooties to my everyday breakfast meals. Then a couple weeks ago my friend introduced me to homemade Lara Bars.

I had never had a regular Lara Bar, but what I tasted was so good it was immediately added to my list of things I had to eat everyday. Well tonight I added a couple of my favorite things to that recipe, chocolate and mint, and had a hard time putting it into it's dish for storage! It almost all got eaten straight out of the food processor.

I hate to end it here and leave you all in suspense, but I need to go to bed. To be continued... 

Don't wake the bears!

I have a lot I want to blog about. Updates on Josey and our family, reasons why I choose to parent the way I do, share some of my favorite recipes and new discoveries.

This is not what I had in mind for a first post, but I couldn’t get back to sleep last night without running through it in my head, so here goes!

We have a neighbor with a dog. (Can you see where this is heading?) Well, we have a few, but this one in particular is who my problem was with last night at 11:30. This neighbor’s backyard butts up to our side yard, at the end of our house where the bedrooms are located.

I haven’t had any issues with this dog. Since I haven’t actually met this neighbor, I’m going to go by what I hear. When she moved in last year, I don’t think she had a dog, because a couple weeks later I started hearing little puppy noises coming from the yard. Never annoying, mostly cute, sounding like a large breed puppy (that softened my heart a little towards it. I love large breed dogs) and it wasn’t that often I’d hear them. I decided this puppy was acceptable, because it really sounded like she wanted to be a good dog owner and a great neighbor, very considerate. Until this summer…

Now, in all honesty, I don’t think any less of this woman. I still don’t hear the dog too much, but I do more than I did last year. Maybe that’s because last year I was so enthralled in our newborn son to notice anything else and whenever sleep did come it was deep. Or maybe because last summer was hot and we had the air conditioner in the bedroom window and that covered up any barking we might have heard at night. But this summer I have been noticing that I am hearing this dog more and more. It will have a few barking spells here and there, but generally stops after a few barks. Nothing that goes on for an extended period of time. It’s like he’s barking at a cat or that he’s done doing his business and is ready to come inside, and she’s pretty good about not letting him bark for long. Great dog owner/neighbor!

This summer, as you may have noticed, has been unusually cool. I have managed to not put in the AC unit and hope to not have to. The open windows and box fan have been working great so far. So in the evening, we open windows (both ours and Josey’s) to cool down the rooms and when it’s time for bed, we turn on the fans (one in each room) and snuggle into our cozy beds. The fans themselves are pretty loud, but constant so you can at least sleep through them. In Josey’s room I also have a humidifier AND sound machine going so I can vacuum or watch a movie or whatever without waking him. Long story short, we sleep with the windows open.

The past week I’ve noticed these parking episodes fairly late at night. Last night was the one that really got me. I had crawled into bed at 11pm, Sam was going to sleep, and Josey was in his room. He had been sleeping for 3 hours. While still not sleeping through the night, he can go longer than 3 hours.

Queue the barking. When I heard it, it had woken me up. I look at my clock and it was 11:30 so I had JUST fallen into that deep sleep. Grrr. I lay there praying, “Please don’t wake the baby. Please don’t wake the baby.” Sure enough, after a few more barks, Josey wakes crying. And now Mama Bear is really awake. I might have muttered something about that dog being in big trouble to Sam. I’m pretty sure I did.

I was able to get Josey back to sleep in his bed after a quick 15 minutes of nursing, only to be woken up by him at 1am, 3am, and 5am. The whole night was thrown off. At least I didn’t hear anything more from the dog.

I have every intention of going to talk to my neighbor today about this, because it’s not the first time I’ve heard the sweet pup (see, not mad at the dog!) during bedtime hours. I’m not going to ask anything unreasonable, but I feel that between the hours of say, 10pm and 6 or 7am she should do everything she can to keep the dog inside.

So I have a couple questions for you readers (if you are really out there!):

1)      If you have a dog, how would you like to be kindly asked to keep it quiet? I’m not looking to make enemies, just make her aware that there is a sleeping babe right next door!

2)      Again, if you have a dog, what steps do you take to keep from being “that” neighbor? The one with the obnoxious dog who wakes babies up from there sleep? I can get over nap times. I think it’s unreasonable to make a dog be totally quiet during the day. A few barks are completely reasonable.

3)      If you were in this situation, what kinds of things would you say to Neighbor? Would you bring a plate of cookies along with your request to “sweeten” the deal and make friends? I’m not above bribery. I also feel like a bad neighbor for only meeting her because I have a problem with her dog!

Here’s hoping no barking happens while Josey is taking a MUCH needed nap right now!

So you started a blog.

      Well, I've been reluctant to start one of these because I like to buck trends. I am an avid Facebooker and love to update my status often with funny things that happen throughout the day. Over sharing? Maybe. This blog will be my outlet to share even more! I'm hoping to share about what I am passionate about, day to day goings on (though I will not be posting everyday, I do have a life. Who am I kidding?), and maybe even some cute pictures of my baby (okay, that's not a maybe). So, thanks for checking out my blog!