A Mother's Sleep

It rained Thursday night which I discovered Friday morning during our walk. At first, I thought people had been running their sprinklers, but then I realized that both sides of the street were wet. (We are under water restrictions because of drought conditions, so odd-numbered addresses are allowed to water some days, and even-numbered the others.) Also, the street itself was wet. I commented to John last night that it had rained, and he looked at me in surprise. Apparently, it had stormed with thunder and lightning right after we went to bed. I didn't hear any of it. But I heard Daniel's little peeps the next morning when he woke up. Isn't it funny how we mothers can sleep through thunderstorms but hear the softest noises from our children?

Strawberry Muffins

Since strawberry season is almost over down here in Georgia, I thought I should make some strawberry muffins. I took this recipe for blueberry muffins from Allrecipes, and adapted it. The topping is very good but a little rich for everyday eating, so I left it off. Instead, I added an extra half cup of sugar in the batter along with finely chopped strawberries. Yummy! Here is a look at my results. The only problem with this recipe is that it only makes ten muffins instead of your usual twelve. One of these days, I will figure out how much of what to add to make the full dozen.
I told you that Sarah Beth insists on eating her muffins with a fork. If I don't give her one, she says, "Fork, fork," over and over again until I give her one. Of course, since she is two, it doesn't quite come out "fork." I'll let you figure that one out!

She loves having her picture taken, and she loves muffins. Can you tell?

Get your new recipes ready because next Friday I will give you a chance to show them off. Shall we call it "Recipe Challenge Friday"? If you can think of a better name, let me know. Please!

New Furniture!

Our new bedroom furniture arrived this afternoon. Hooray! We have been waiting and waiting for it, and we felt like we were getting the run-around. I thought maybe you would like to see pictures of it; well, honestly, I just want to show it off.

Here is our great big, king-sized bed. It is nice to have so much room!

Here is our dresser; John thinks I should use it and let him have the chest of drawers. Neither of us have enough clothes to fill the chest, but I do have more than he does. We'll talk about it tonight. Of course, possession is nine-tenths of the law. Hmmm.

Isn't this a great picture of me taking a picture? I love the flash over my face. The camera is crooked, not the dresser.

WIP Wednesday

Can you tell what this is? Probably not because it doesn't look like much yet. It is going to be a Christmas stocking. I'm crocheting a plain green one first, then I will mix it up some with red and white. Hopefully, I will have four done by Christmas. Do you knit, crochet, or sew? If you do, you should join Mrs. H at the Place of H for Work-in-Progress Wednesday.

"Tagged" Updated

Last week I was tagged by my cousin Angela, then I tagged my friend Laura. She in turn tagged her sister-in-law Tami. I was reading Tami's answers, and one of them stuck out to me: "Got any confessions?" As you may recall, I that question blank. But her answer was much more honest: "I would rather let my my kids have their own way than discipline them or tell them "no" - but I know that my kids would be brats if I let them have their own way all of the time." I feel that way. I hate to hear my children cry. I want to do everything I can to keep them from crying. Maybe I spoil them a little bit, but I don't want to see them upset. I really, really hate it when I am the reason they cry. I hate telling Sarah Beth no. I hate setting limits; I hate enforcing those limits. I hate discipling. But I like my children so very much more when they are behaved. I will love them the same no matter what, but Sarah Beth is much more pleasant to be around when I am consistent in my discipline. (I am sure it will be the same with Daniel.) I want to have children that know how to behave and that people enjoy being around, so I will continue with my discipline. Thankfully, I am not in it alone because I have a loving, discipling husband.

Book Give-Away

My good friend Laura posted about this give-away of her sister-in-law. It looks like a neat book, so you ought to go over and enter. No, wait a minute. You shouldn't. The more people who enter, the less chance I have to win!

Pictures!

Poor Daniel. But he didn't mind at all. He didn't fuss or whine a bit until we rescued him. Marva, does that outfit look familiar?
He just keeps getting plumper and plumper. Nice and tender!


I did not set this picture up, I promise! She put the Mrs. Potato Head mouth in her own mouth all by herself. I just had to take a picture!
Sarah Beth loves her daddy, can you tell?

Blueberry Muffins, Finally!

I have been looking for a yummy recipe for blueberry muffins. None of the many, many (okay, three) recipes I have tried have had the flavor I was looking for. Honestly, they were bland. I started to think that the best blueberry muffins came from the package without real blueberries, but I gave it one more try, and this recipe fits the bill! I'm sorry I don't have pictures; I was too busy eating them! I do wish I had one of Sarah Beth eating hers with a fork. She insists on eating her blueberry muffins with a fork even though her Mommy uses her fingers.

I Have a Babysitter!

You may not think that is such a big deal, but I have not had one until now. You have to remember that we used to live out in the country where we did not know anyone who could watch our children for us. A couple of times we left Sarah Beth with someone at her house, but only once did we have someone come to our house to watch her. Most of the time, I brought Sarah Beth into town for my mom to watch, and I really appreciated her doing that.

Now, however, we live in town! And there are girls who live near enough that they can babysit! It is hard getting out with both Sarah Beth and Daniel, as I am sure most of you know. I have arranged for Audrey to come over every Thursday to play with Sarah Beth while I take Daniel shopping. I hope to be able to leave her with both of them in a few weeks, but we will see. Daniel is still difficult sometimes, and I do not feel comfortable leaving her with both right now.

Today we went to Penny's to return some things I ordered for my birthday (back in April) that did not work out. Hooray! It is good to have that money back. We also went to Target and got a few things we needed, but they also had some good deals on clothes for the children. I bought some things for next year since they don't need anything for this summer. And I went to two different stores looking for the yarn to start my Christmas things, but they were out or didn't carry it. Ugh! I may just have to order it. I will wait until Joann's has free shipping, though. Meanwhile, I can start on our stockings.

What will I do next time? I don't know. My list is so long that I will have to narrow it down some.

WIP Wednesday

Mrs. H at the Place of H hosts Work in Progress Wednesday. As you can see from the last time, I have gotten quite a few more rounds done of my bag. I only have four more to go plus attaching the handles. Hopefully, I will be able to get it done this week. Then I plan to start working on Christmas things. Yes, Christmas. If I don't get started now, I will not have them done by the time Christmas comes around. I would like to make us stockings. I also found a pretty pattern for placemats and coasters which would be nice to help make the house more festive.

Tagged

Angela from Bringing Creativity tagged me yesterday, so here goes.

1. Favorite person: That would have to be my sweet husband John.
2. Favorite food: anything with chocolate
3. Quirks about me: I like to alphabetize things: my books (by author, of course!), my DVD's, my spices, etc..
4. How would the person who loves you the most describe you in ten words or less? John would describe me, I hope, as a good wife and mother.
5. Any regrets in life? I regret not keeping in touch better with people.
6. What can you NOT live without? My family.
7. Favorite blog: I have several blogs that I really enjoy reading, but I won't pick a favorite.
8. Something you can't get enough of: naptime. Where does that two and a half hours of Sarah Beth's naptime go?
9. Worst job you ever had: My first pharmacy intern position at Revco (yes, it was that long ago). It was on the southside of town, my manager didn't like me, it was my first time dealing with the public, and I had no idea what I was doing.
10. What job would you pay not to have? Being a nurse in a hospital. They have to clean up all kinds of things.
11. If you could be a fly on the wall anywhere, where would it be? I would love to know what Sarah Beth does in her room in her bed during "naptime" when she is not asleep. How does she spend two and a half hours with just her bear and her baby without going to sleep?
12. Favorite Bible verse: Matthew 6:34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow because tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
13. Guilty pleasure: I have a hidey-hole for treats that John doesn't know about. In my defense, it only has part of a Hershey bar. I have been working on it for about a month.
14. Got any confessions: none that I want to share at this time!
15. If you had $1000 to spend on YOURSELF, what would you spend it on? I need a new pair of shoes. KIDDING! I would buy books, lots and lots of books!
16. Favorite thing about your house: I love our new home, but my favorite thing is that it makes John happy.
17. Least favorite thing: the stairs.
18. One thing you are bad at: knitting which is why I don't do it.
19. If you could change one thing about your current circumstances, what would it be? I wish John could work fewer hours.
20. Who would you like to meet someday? Patrick Stewart. For those of you who don't know who he is, he played Captain Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
21. What makes you feel sexy? I have two children, and the older just turned two and I'm breastfeeding the younger. I don't ever feel sexy.
22. Who is your real life hero? My husband for putting up with me and my moods.
23. What is the hardest part of your job? I cannot stand it when my children are fussy for no reason.
24. When are you most relaxed? When both children and John are happy.
25. What stresses you out? Endless fussiness, usually from Daniel.
26. Favorite quote: Revenge is a dish best served cold. Michael Dorn as Worf.
27. Why do you blog? Because I enjoy it. Why else would I do it?
28. Who are you tagging? Laura, Ivy, Babychaser, and Nikki.

Whew! That was a long one!

Space: The Final Frontier

I have been watching the new mini-series on the Discovery Channel When We Left Earth. As you probably recall, I love Star Trek. I grew up watching Kirk, Spock, and Mccoy solve all of the universe's problems. Then there was Captain Picard, Data, Worf, and the rest who continued to solve all of the problems in the universe. So space is not a big deal to me. I grew up with people flying around in spaceships with not a care in the world for the fact that they were a long way from home, i.e. earth.

Things changed for me last night. In this episode, they showed some pictures from Apollo 8. They were taken from the other side of the moon as the earth rose. Yes, it was an earth-rise, not a sunrise. I realized at that point how scary it must have been to be that far from earth. The astronauts figured they had a one-third chance to make it to the moon, orbit it, and return home. Basically, they didn't think they would make it back. One of the wives was told by someone in mission control that he thought they had a 50% chance of returning, and she was glad because she thought it was lower than that.

All of that got me thinking about being in space. Can you imagine looking down on the earth? Can you imagine doing a space-walk with only a thin line keeping you anchored to the ship? If it broke, you would float away with no chance of returning. Can you imagine heading for the moon, hoping the computer calculated the numbers correctly so that you did not crash into it or miss it completely (the orbit) and keep going indefinitely? Our early astronauts were courageous men; of course, they still are.

I am glad, however, that I get to keep my feet planted firmly on the ground!

Recipe Challenge

The past couple of weeks I have tried several new recipes. I forgot to take pictures of all of them, but here is my cinnamon-raisin bread, and I made it from scratch. I mean, I kneaded it by hand and everything! That is a big deal for me because usually I let my bread machine do all the hard work for me.


Here is another recipe I tried for chocolate chip bread. This time I let my bread machine do all the hard work, but that is what the recipe book called for. However, my bread machine melted the chocolate chips, so it turned out more like chocolate bread.

This Golden Corn Quiche was delicious and fairly easy. I forgot to take a picture until after we had cut into it.

The recipe for the quiche is from Taste of Home June and July 2008.

1 unbaked pastry shell (9 inches)

1 1/3 cups half-and-half cream

3 eggs

3 tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 small onion, cut into wedges

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups frozen corn, thawed

Line unpricked pastry shell with a double thickness of heavy-duty foil. Bake at 375 for 5 minutes. Remove foil; bake 5 minutes longer.

In a blender, combine the cream, eggs, butter, onion, flour, sugar, and salt; cover and process until blended. Stir in corn; pour into crust. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting.

What about you? What new recipes have you tried lately? If you haven't tried anything new lately, be on the lookout for something. We will do this again next month.

What are They Thinking?

Have you heard about the Supreme Court ruling today that the terrorists we have captured now have to be given Constitutional rights? Yes, that's right; men who are not American citizens have now been given rights as American citizens. What does this mean? Every time an enemy soldier is captured from now on, our soldiers have to read him his Miranda rights.

Hmm, I wonder...does that mean our guys will capture fewer enemies?

The Ultimate Comfort Food

I have been thinking lately about the ultimate comfort food. Do you know what it is? I bet Babychaser, Laura, and Ivy know what it is. It's breast milk! Chocolate and ice-cream are wonderful comfort foods, I will agree with you. But when was the last time that you fell asleep while eating chocolate or ice-cream? I know that I haven't. Daniel, however, has a hard time staying awake sometimes while eating. Part of it, I am sure, is being snuggled up close to his favorite person in the whole, wide world: me! But oh, the food has got to be good, too!

Dentist

A couple of weeks ago in church, our preacher said something about everyone dreading the trip to the dentist. I thought, "I don't. I look forward to going to the dentist." Do you think I'm strange? Let me tell you why: I get the most awful stains on my teeth. My mom occasionally tells me that I have something between my teeth, and I have to say that it is a stain. Yuck, huh? Last time I went, I even scheduled to return early in five months instead of six. (I hope I am not grossing you out too badly.) I have cut out everything I can think of that causes stains; I don't drink coffee, and I rarely drink tea or Coke. This morning I went back to the dentist, and my normal hygenist was on vacation. I talked with her replacement about those stains, and she asked if I rinse with anything. Yes, I use Crest Pro-Health. Guess what? It can cause stains! I guess it's time to go back to Listerine. I've had stains longer than the time I've used the Crest, but they were worse this time. I have to admit that I'm glad that my regular hygenist was gone today. Even though my teeth now hurt.

Reminder

Remember that Friday we are going to show off the new recipes we have tried this week. Here is one that I tried this weekend:

These cinnamon rolls from Allrecipes were very good, although I prefer more of an icing icing, if you know what I mean, instead of a cream cheese icing. I will have to try a different icing next time. The best thing about this recipe is that you can make the dough in your bread machine. I made mine Saturday evening, let the rolls rise overnight in the refrigerator, and baked them Sunday morning. Yummy!

I am going to try to have Mr. Linky, so take pictures!

Too Much to Do, Too Little Time

This week is my first "normal" week since we moved into our new house. What do I mean by "normal"? I am not busy unpacking, I'm not sick, and we're not going out of town. Normal. I thought at the beginning of this week that, finally, I would be able to get some things done, housework-type things, things that have been neglected lately. I have been frustrated this week, however, by how little I have been able to accomplish. The question then is, "Am I trying to do too much, or am I not using my time wisely?" I haven't decided yet.

I decided to talk with John about my little problem last night. Before I even finished complaining, he reminded me that I had emptied the dishwasher. Yes, I had. Then he told me that I had taken care of the children. Yes, I had done that, too; they were dressed, I had fed them at appropriate times during the day, and I had spent time with them. I had the laundry washed, dried, folded, and put away. (Why is it so much harder to put clothes away than it is to wash, dry, and fold them?) Okay, so maybe my day (and therefore, week) was not a total waste.

I still feel that I could be using my time better. I have decided to take advantage of those few in-between minutes. You know, those times that occur between two different things (like lunch and naptime) when I am tempted to just wait for the next thing. I have also determined to do things when I see they need to be done instead of waiting until a better time. We'll see if this helps.

I think my frustration comes from a combination of too much to do and not enough time. Sometimes, we have to be happy to do less, and we have to take advantage of every minute of the day. Babychaser recently had a good post about this, and Crystal at Biblical Womanhood had one yesterday. Check them out if you feel like I do.

WIP Wednesday

Mrs. H at the Place of H is hosting WIP Wednesday which I have not been able to be a part of in a long, long time due to moving, sickness, being out of town, etc.. I have been crocheting, however, and here is what I have been working on. It is going to be a bag, and it is the first thing I have ever made for myself. I have made things for my children, my family, other people's children, but not for me. I am using Red Heart SuperSaver yarn in varying colors as you can tell from the picture. The colors are what drew me to the picture because, honestly, I don't need another bag, and I'm not sure what I will do with it. But it is a great pattern to work on in the snippets of time that my children allow me.

Challenge Update

In order to accomodate people who were not prepared for my challenge, we will discuss our new recipes later next week, like Thursday or Friday. Maybe I will even set up Mr. Linky, so take pictures!

It's Not Fair!

I was reading my cousin Dayna's blog the other day, and she was talking about sayings that our mothers used to use. She was wondering if we had come up with any of our own. (By the way, I really like hers: what do you want me to do about it?) Mine is: it's not fair, is it? Poor Sarah Beth, it's not fair that she cannot always do what she wants and get what she wants. It's not fair!

Yesterday, I was thinking about my saying some more, and here is what I came up with.

• It's not fair that I was born in the United States of America when so many billions of people are not.
• It's not fair that I was born in this time period when we have dish washers and washing machines that make life easier.
• It's not fair that I was born in the South while so many poor, poor Americans are born Yankees.
• It's not fair that I was born into a middle-class family who was able to send me to college.
• It's not fair that I am married to the most wonderful man in the world while so many women can only claim second best.
• It's not fair that I am able to get pregnant fairly easily when so many women have trouble.
• It's not fair that my children are healthy (as far as we know) when so many families (like my sister) have disabled children.
• It's not fair that I was chosen by God to be one of His children when so many are not.

Life's not fair, is it? Do we really want it to be?

Challenge

Do you have a bunch of recipe books that you never (or rarely) use? Do you feel like you make the same things over and over and over again? I do. I was looking through one of my cookbooks the other day and realized that there are some great recipes in there that I have never tried. Some I had never even seen just because I had never taken the time to go through the book.

I want to issue you a challenge. Let's go through our cookbooks this week and find a new recipe to try. We will come back next week and discuss what we tried. I already know what I'm going to make, but you don't have to know yet. That is why I am giving us a week, so we can have time to search our recipe books and get to the grocery store, if we need to.

If you would like to join me in this challenge, please leave a comment. If there is enough interest, maybe we will make it a monthly thing. (Not weekly because who has the time?)

By the way, remember those strawberry cupcakes I wanted to make for Sarah Beth's birthday party but couldn't because I was sick? Well, I made them last week for her actual birthday, and they were YUMMY! They had real strawberries that I chopped up in the cake, and mashed strawberries in the icing. I think that will be what I prepare for her birthday every year since it falls during strawberry season. (And they're pink which is perfect for a little girl's birthday, don't you think?)