My Pinterest Love Affair

I admit it, I'm in love with Pinterest. I adore having a more organized way to save crafts and party inspirations - it is SO much easier to follow a link represented by a photo to retrieve an idea than looking through a list of obscure text links. Most of all, the OCD organization freak in me (she has REALLY surfaced since I finished residency and have more time to breathe) has been making the most of Pinterest to help with my recipe filing and weekly meal planning. I shuffle recipes between boards titled "Recipes to Try", "Favorite Recipes", and "This Week" to make the most of my tech savvy recipe box.

Any recipe I come across and want to try out gets dumped onto the "try it" board. After I've made the dish once I decide if it's a keeper (or not!) and either shuffle it to the favorites board or delete the pin (so I'm not tricked into making it again if it was a dud!). My favorite organizational use for Pinterest is my "This Week" board where I plan meals, snacks, lunches, breakfasts, etc that I plan to make the following week. It takes some time to put it together, but it gives me easy access to all the recipes for grocery lists and they are easy to find when I'm in the kitchen cooking.

Tonight I made this delicious salad I pinned from Iowa Girl Eats. This will be make it's way onto my favorites board:

Summer Fruit and Grain Salad 

with local fresh grown blueberries, tomatoes, basil, mint, and green leaf lettuce.

Catch-up

In the past 7 months my posting has been sporadic at best, so I'm going to try to very briefly turn personal for a few minutes and explain what's been going on. Oddly enough, just when I finished residency and thought I'd have more time to blog (something I really enjoy) things got messy. I couldn't put words to what I was going through and couldn't ignore it, so I just didn't say anything at all. Now, with some perspective I'm ready to let it all out. To force myself to keep the shortest format possible, here's my recap of the past 9 months:

November - First full month home as a "stay at home mom" between residency and my new job. The good was that I found out I was pregnant (very carefully planned and intended, right on schedule). The bad was that I was struggling with being home full time and found bug and I didn't know what to do with so much time together (she was becoming spoiled and bratty and I was becoming restless).

December - First month at my new job and bug's return to daycare. The good was that I LOVED going back to work and bug and I were much more appreciative of each other (plus the holidays and all those other fun December things). The bad was that I ended up in the ER (first time as a patient, not a doctor) and found out I was having a miscarriage. I handled it well at the time, but slowly decompensated over the following months.

January - The good was that I continued to be happy at my job, bug readjusted to daycare and things with my body were slowly returning to normal. The bad was that I became obsessed with trying to predict periods, ovulation, etc and started to put pressure on myself to get pregnant again.

February - The bad was the first half of the month when I took multiple pregnancy tests that came out negative and became irrationally MORE frustrated as I felt out of control of my body. Outside my little bubble, my mother-in-law was having health concerns as well which made me feel even worse that I was upset about something minor and "normal" with myself when she was going through a much scarier time. The good was that we took our first "just us" vacation to the Great Escape Lodge indoor waterpark and the end of the month I found out I was pregnant again! 

March - The bad was that I started having similar symptoms to the last time I miscarried and ended up as an emergency fit in at the OB office. On ultrasound they couldn't see the baby and presumed I had another miscarriage. For a week I was absolutely miserable, convinced we would never have another child and worried that something was wrong with me. The good was that when I went back for one week follow-up they DID see the heartbeat and things leveled out and normalized (no idea why I bled or why they didn't see the baby the first time). Other good things included my mother-in-law having a successful surgery with a good outcome, my wonderful husband turning 30, fun celebrations related to that, and a new baby being born in the family-)

April - The bad was that I was still a nervous wreck and worried that the pregnancy was going to "disappear" again. Unlike my first pregnancy when we talked about it all the time and started making baby name lists, we barely mentioned it as if our silence would somehow protect the little embryo as it grew. The good was that our big bug turned 3! and as I neared the end of the first trimester we finally became more confident that things were OK and told our family the news.

May and June - No big "bad" events for us (a close relative had a repeat of my December though which stunk). My practice was growing and growing, bug was happy and healthy, and bunny bunny (nickname given to the baby by our bug) has continued to grow. We finally started to feel confident that the baby is well after a handful of ultrasounds and lots of activity that I started being able to feel at 17 weeks.

July - A really great and busy month for us - family vacations and picnics and parties, taking bug to her first Phish show, I turned 30 (yikes!), and pregnancy is still treating me well as I near the third trimester.

So that's it! In retrospect it sounds a bit less dramatic than going through it was (which is good!). Now I can file all the "bad" away as life experience and am ready to go forward as a happier and stronger person... 

Recipe: Dessert Pizza

I haven't been on my blog in awhile (I'll talk about what's been up in a later post), but as there was interest in this recipe when I posted a picture on facebook I figured I'd throw up the details for anyone who wants to try it out.

The crust can be any of the following baked as a circle on a pizza pan or as a rectangle on a cookie sheet: brownie mix, crescent rolls, or sugar cookie.

Bake and cool the crust of your choice. While it's cooling, mix together 8oz light cream cheese at room temperature, 1tsp vanilla extract, and 1/4-1/2 cup of confectioner's sugar (add more or less depending on how sweet you want the spread to be).

Top with any sliced fruits of your choice. Some suggestions are:

1. "Crowd pleaser" as above - strawberries, bananas, kiwis, raspberries

2. "Ice cream sundae" - Strawberries, bananas, crushed pineapple, walnuts, and melted chocolate swirl

3. "Celebrate the 4th" - bake as a rectangle and use blueberries, bananas, and strawberries to replicate the stripes and stars of the American flag

Also try blackberries, mandarin oranges, peach slices, and/or halved grapes for a different twist!

Ugly cookies

I found this recipe on pinterest a few weeks ago and have tried everything to make them "look right", but nothing has worked. They are hideous, but delicious.

Comfort in a dish

This is my mother-in-law's ham and scalloped potatoes. Quite possibly one of the most comforting, rich, creamy meals to eat when it's cold outside or you need some cheering from the inside out. If I could eat this and my mom's chicken Kiev with mushroom sauce every night without gaining 100lbs I would...

Party Hat Cat

This is a rough prototype for my fabric party hats for bug's birthday party modeled by the lovely moe. the cat.

So far this is a cheap dollar store party hat wrapped in fabric (secured with hot glue) with ribbon ties. The Mickey head was cut with my Cricut machine. These will also have tulle pom poms when complete.

Snuggle time

Ignore the poor quality of the photo due to low lighting. What this photo shows is a moment that is becoming more and more rare as the days go by - a peaceful toddler and a mommy taking the time to enjoy it.

Ribbon topiary

These are still a work in progress as I haven't finished the bases they will be "planted" in yet, but they are fun enough to share.

These were a very cheap, but time consuming project:

2 styrofoam cones - $2.00 (dollar tree)
Assorted ribbon - $8.00 (various craft stores)
Pins - $1.00 (dollar tree)

Each took about 5 hours total to make, but it wasn't tedious as I worked about 1-2 hours at a time while watching tv or movies after the bug went to bed.

Snaaaaake!

From the Kid's Expo at the Empire State Plaza...

We've got ears....

...say cheers!

Handmade Mickey and Minnie ears for the bug's THIRD birthday party coming up in just over a month based on the tutorial found here

One a Day for March

I tried the blogger "one a day" post project last year and was (kinda) close to successful. As I have about a million projects I am working on right now (and finally have an i-phone which makes picture taking and uploading so much easier) I've decided to do one photo a day for March. Some photos will come with recipes or tutorials and others might just be for fun.

Enjoy!

Elmo cupcakes

Monster Mix

In my 33 month post I mentioned that bug's tantrums recently have centered around our denial of junk food. I found myself in one of these situations yesterday morning when I was attempting to get us out of the house. Bug spotted the jar of M&Ms and immediately asked for some. As I prepared to weather the storm that was sure to hit, an inspiration struck me. What if I could weave the perfect web of distraction, substitution, and entertainment that would get her to eat a healthier snack and avoid the tantrum that would delay our departure? From thus was born...Monster Mix!

Not taking the time to deny bug's candy request I eagerly asked her if she'd like a totally awesome, fun, cool snack that she had never had before?! But wait! It's so cool that it's a surprise! and she has to leave the kitchen because she can't see it! Wide eyed and beside herself with excitement she stood in the doorway asking, "Can I see it yet? Is it ready??" Quickly I filled a ziplock bag with a haphard assortment of pantry staples, gave the bag a shake, and presented her with her first ever bag of monster mix.

Want to make your very own monster mix? Just toss together 1/4 - 1/2 cup (or a small handful) of at least 4 different snacks and toss with a few "treat items". Ours included: pretzel sticks, mini wheat thins, whole grain goldfish, Cheerios, raisins, and a tablespoon of M&Ms. She was so excited about the assortment that she ate everything else and left more than half the M&Ms in the bag.

Mission accomplished!

33 months

It is so hard to believe that my little bug is already almost THREE years old. The past few months have been an adjustment for all of us as I've gone from working too many hours, not working enough hours, to finding a fit that's juuuuust right. If you were a fly on the wall at our house these days, this is what you might see:

• Bug went from resisting potty training full force to completely potty trained day and night in a matter of days. It was like a flip switched and she was done with diapers.


• Tantrums are back with a vengence, but with the added twist of insanity. Bug can be the sweetest, most adorable little angel one second and a raging lunatic screaming, scratching, and drooling on everything the next. The tantrums can come out of nowhere and last from seconds to minutes with absolutely no way of predicting the outcome ahead of time. They are crazier than ever before because of the fury with which she carries them out.


• Bug is obsessed with the "If you give a mouse/pig/moose/dog/ect" books and we read at least two of them every day.


• We all got extrememly spoiled over the holidays with free access to sweets, but bug is having a hard time getting back to healthy snacks and most of the tantrums (see above) start out with a request for chocolate/candy/cookies that is denied.


• Bug likes for us to tell her real stories (her favorites are "when bug was born" and "disney worlds"), but they have to be the same every single time. I realized this is because she memorizes them and then tells them back to us or to her dolls when she is putting them to bed.


• Everything happened "yesterday" when she tells a story. Whether it was three hours ago or three months ago, it happened yesterday.


• Bug has her Daddy's memory for song lyrics and knows nearly all the words to Phish's Joy and My Sweet One, moe.'s She Sends Me, and Life's a Happy Song from the new Muppet movie (in addition to countless Christmas and kid songs).


• Bedtime is generally not good these days. We have moved bug out of the toddler bed and into a twin bed because she wants Daddy or I to lay in bed with her reading and telling stories for 30-90 minutes every night. We've tried "letting her cry it out", thus far all that has resulted in is a very angry kid and all toys/clothes that she can reach being piled in the center of her floor. It's a work in progress...

I could probably add about a dozen more bullet points, but I think I've hit the high (and low) points of 33 months. I think her Daddy and I will remember this time of her life as being extremely fun, but also as one which tries our patience on a daily basis as her desires so often clash with our own.

Happy New Year!

Once again I've been neglectful of my blog. One of my new year's resolutions is to not feel guilty about it. I like this blog and sharing ideas and stories, but not at the expensive of time with my little bug or my husband. So I will be continuing my blog, but only when I can, no promises I can't keep.

That said, the new year is treating us well. My new job is wonderful and I love it. All of the staff in my office is nice, helpful, and very personable. Working part-time is a dream. I have more time with the bug and even a morning completely to myself to cook, clean, shop, and craft!

Speaking of the bug, living with a 2 1/2 year old is INTENSE. She can be the sweetest little princess in the world one second and then transform into a raging monster the next - this transformation is usually precipitated by asking for candy 5 minutes before dinner and receiving a negative response from mom and dad. I've got plenty of stories that fellow parents will appreciate, but I'll save them for a 33 month post in a few days (if I get to it...).

Anyway, I hope anyone else who is still reading out there is having a great new year and finding success with their resolutions.

Potty Wars

It might be hard to believe, but the princess pictured here marked not one, but two stores in a single day with golden puddles during the long, hard process of potty training.

That's right. I've reached one of the monumental times in parenting - potty training. I followed all the (questionably helpful) advice I've learned from residency. Such gems such as "Try a sticker chart, it works like a charm," "Let her run around without a diaper on so she can use the potty when the urge comes, " and "You'll know when she's ready,"come to mind. I really hope these things helped someone, but for me they resulted in: flat out disinterest in stickers, urine on my floor, couch, and coffee table in rapid succession, and continued assertions of, "I want my diaper back!"

I really don't know how I expected all of these gimmicky things to work after every other moment of parenting has taught me that nothing is that easy. There was almost zero chance that I could say, "Hey, you get one whole sticker if you go from being totally happy in a soggy diaper for three hours to having to stop doing fun stuff every hour or so to sit on a cold toilet seat," to my stubborn little bug and expect it to happen.

So here's the real truth: potty training is a huge inconvenience and a lot of work. Bug was dry all day for the first time today because I (not her) was finally willing to pay the price for that accomplishment. I carried her potty chair up and down the stairs to keep it at hand while we were in the playroom. I allowed errands to take twice as long so we could take potty breaks the minute we walked into each store, before we left the store, and sometimes during the shopping if the urge struck her. I turned off the stove in the middle of preparing dinner to help her onto the big potty.

These might not sound like huge inconveniences, but the time burden is heavy when you commit to it. It makes me realize how much easier it would be to just let her keep peeing in a diaper. Thinking of it that way, I realize why she was never going to be the one to take the initiative and it had to be me.

Anyone else about to take this journey, best of luck...

Letters - the rest

Bug at the museum on "M" day

I wish I could say that my ABC plan worked wonderfully and my super savvy 31 month old now knows every letter from A-Z. But I'll be honest - it was too much information, we were going too fast, and she got sick of it. It went great at first, but she slowly became less and less interested in my overenthusiastic declarations about how great such and such letter was and how many super, amazing, awesome things we were gonna do to celebrate that letter!! We made it to "M" doing the full out plan. She still likes making the picture collages, but I'm pretty sure she likes it because it's one-on-one interactive time we spend together (or because she gets to play with stickers...) not because she cares about what the letter is. I hope that the collages will at least help her to learn the ABCs in the future.

Here are some things I think I could have done or changed to make this work better:

1. More time! I think this would have worked much better as "Letter of the Week." She would have had more time to process each letter and really commit it to memory before we moved on.

2. I think I could have kept her attention more if I planned ahead better. We would sit with a huge box of craft supplies each day and see what we might happen to have that started with that letter that we could go with. I could have pre-sorted and put aside everything we were going to use the night before.

3. It would have been more fun if we were all involved (Daddy too!). He would always ask about the letter of the day, but otherwise it was just bug and I plodding through the alphabet.

I and J

Sorry for the delay in continuing this feature. Bug and I took this week off from letters to review and we'll resume with "N" on Monday.

We learned about the letter I by playing with ice in the sink and making ice cream.

We filled the sink with ice cubes and bins of colored water. Bug practiced catching the ice cubes with a big spoon and moving them to the other containers.

Bug watching our pumpkin ice cream churn.

For J day we spent some time outside jumping on the trampoline and then made our own fresh apple juice!

Jumping on a nice fall day.

Using our leftover apples from the orchard to make some delicious homemade juice.

Pumpkin Faves

I know I've posted about it before, but I love everything fall and everything pumpkin. Halloween may be over, but I consider it pumpkin season through Thanksgiving so I thought I'd share a few of my new pumpkin favorite foods and drinks.

1. Pumpkin spice coffee. No, not one of the dozen varieties available at markets and coffee shops (although Fresh Market's is quite nice). We make our own by filling the coffee filter with regular fair trade coffee and then adding about a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice. Stir the spices in and brew as usual. Delicious!

2. Pumpkin Cannoli. I discovered these about a month ago at Roma's in Latham. They are of the chocolate shell variety with a delicious pumpkin flavored filling. Yum!

3. Pumpkin pie yogurt. Wonderful treat from Target for only 80 calories and zero fat.

4. Pumpkin cookies. These are more like mini cakes. The recipe I used is here, but I added a cinnamon cream cheese frosting instead of glaze.

5. Pumpkin Shrimp Curry. OK so I am cheating by listing this as a favorite because I haven't actually made it yet (dinner tonight!). The recipe is this month's issue of Bon Appetit and looks incredible similar to the usual shrimp curry I make except the can of tomatoes is replaced with a can of pumpkin so I am projecting that I will love it.

Post-Halloween Weirdness

This morning my bug is in rare form. First, she demanded that her daddy kiss her "big toe" instead of her cheek before leaving for work. Then she did this while I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth and washing my face...

When I asked what she was doing, she told me that, "The lion and me are taking a nap in the kitchen." After I showed her the photos she said, "Aww, we're so cute!" How do I even respond to that?!

Happy Halloween!

As Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, I thought I'd share a few of our photos from this weekend's festivities....Hope everyone has a very Happy Halloween!

A proper princess with her pumpkin cookie at the Crossings Halloween party

Silly Cinderella finds spider rings in the hay at the Boght Fire House

Sweet little gnome posing at a friend's Halloween party

Chocolate "dirt" cupcakes topped with chocolate frosting, cake crumbs, and gummy worms for the Halloween party at school.