November 12, 2010
Meal Planning and Recipes
Me and a group of moms I have developed friendships with online are all contributing together to a Meal Planning and Recipe blog. I hope you'll check it out HERE!
November 10, 2010
Surprises
I will have to admit that I have not had very many surprises in my life. Ranging from Christmas to Birthdays the majority of the time I knew what gifts to expect and as in my adult life I have even purchased my own gifts on the behalf of family members!
Being a deal hound I can't stand the thought of paying too much for something. Probably something instilled in me from a very young age. Christmas and my Birthday were so close that my Father would often combine the two which meant waiting till after Christmas to get a bigger gift for half off instead of smaller gifts at regular price. So growing up it was always cash was king in our family as Christmas presents. So other than a few small things I was given cash to spend post Christmas when I could get more for my money. There are some advantages and disadvantages to this but the most obvious disadvantage is the surprise factor or rather the lack of it. But by waiting I always got what I wanted and more because the money went further.
Flash forward to my married life where my wife for some reason doesn't seem to ever know what to get me (I like RC Planes/Helicopters and Kites - any will do) so I make it simple on her by buying my own gifts at the best price and then tell her it is for "insert holiday here". She hates this so much that it has been a point of contention in our marriage thus far. Last year for Valentines we tried something different and she picked out a surprise gift and I must say although not something I was expecting it was a very nice furniture grade Watch Box to keep my small collection of watches in and on display instead of just my sock drawer. I enjoyed the little experiment and the surprise but I still needed some kind of bigger surprise to make up for all those years of always knowing. That opportunity presented itself in several big ways last year.
The first big surprise was how quickly God blessed us in our attempts to conceive. With both of us being in our mid thirties, Shannon and I had imagined several months of trying. This thought became even greater when we found out at the start of our attempts that I would unexpectedly have to attend an out of state training session for 6 weeks. But fortunately, after just one month of trying and on the day before I was due to leave for my trip we found out that Shannon was pregnant - a wonderful surprise and relief for both of us. That surprise really helped me get through 6 weeks of being away from my wife and also help strengthened our marriage while we were apart when the distance would have taken a toll on some.
The second surprise and the greatest of my adult life was deciding to wait till our baby was born to know the gender. As impatient as I am, I was determined to have one major surprise in my life and this was the perfect opportunity and thankfully Shannon agreed with my decision. For me I had no doubt about the fact that I didn't want to know but then after about 2 weeks of making the decision I got worried that I may have forced Shannon into it. I realized I sort of just stated the fact that we would not find out the gender till the baby would be born but I never really asked for any deep thoughts or concerns about it from Shannon. So I addressed the issue again with her and she assured me that she too didn't want to know. I realized that waiting till you actually have your baby to determine the gender is a thing of the past and very few people do it but to us it was very important to NOT know. I can't even put into words how it actually really felt to know all at the same moment that my wife was OK, my baby was OK, and that I was the father of a baby girl. The feelings of each thing just compounded upon itself exponentially. To hear "it's a girl" come out of the Doctor's mouth and to have the feelings I did was just beyond belief. It was so pure and so wonderful. We both enjoyed it so much that I am pretty sure that although impractical that we would once again wait till find out the gender should we chose to have another child.
The last big surprise was just how hard being a parent really is. It is nothing like what they say in books or training seminars. With Olivia being such a "high needs" baby, she really has just brought out so much in us that we both didn't even know we had. I have now seen my wife blossom into the most wonderful mother, full of strength and tenderness and myself love another person so wholeheartedly. I will have to openly admit that Shannon has really felt the lion share of the struggles with raising our child. She was the one at home the most during those fist months, the one who always got up in the middle of the night to feed Olivia or soother her. I really was shielded from a lot of the bigger struggles of caring for a new born because she so willing and actively took on those chores as loving mother. I could not have been blessed with a better wife and mother for my child.
So all these surprises combined have really made for a wonderful year and have made up quite a bit for what I have been lacking all my life in the surprise department.
Being a deal hound I can't stand the thought of paying too much for something. Probably something instilled in me from a very young age. Christmas and my Birthday were so close that my Father would often combine the two which meant waiting till after Christmas to get a bigger gift for half off instead of smaller gifts at regular price. So growing up it was always cash was king in our family as Christmas presents. So other than a few small things I was given cash to spend post Christmas when I could get more for my money. There are some advantages and disadvantages to this but the most obvious disadvantage is the surprise factor or rather the lack of it. But by waiting I always got what I wanted and more because the money went further.
Flash forward to my married life where my wife for some reason doesn't seem to ever know what to get me (I like RC Planes/Helicopters and Kites - any will do) so I make it simple on her by buying my own gifts at the best price and then tell her it is for "insert holiday here". She hates this so much that it has been a point of contention in our marriage thus far. Last year for Valentines we tried something different and she picked out a surprise gift and I must say although not something I was expecting it was a very nice furniture grade Watch Box to keep my small collection of watches in and on display instead of just my sock drawer. I enjoyed the little experiment and the surprise but I still needed some kind of bigger surprise to make up for all those years of always knowing. That opportunity presented itself in several big ways last year.
The first big surprise was how quickly God blessed us in our attempts to conceive. With both of us being in our mid thirties, Shannon and I had imagined several months of trying. This thought became even greater when we found out at the start of our attempts that I would unexpectedly have to attend an out of state training session for 6 weeks. But fortunately, after just one month of trying and on the day before I was due to leave for my trip we found out that Shannon was pregnant - a wonderful surprise and relief for both of us. That surprise really helped me get through 6 weeks of being away from my wife and also help strengthened our marriage while we were apart when the distance would have taken a toll on some.
The second surprise and the greatest of my adult life was deciding to wait till our baby was born to know the gender. As impatient as I am, I was determined to have one major surprise in my life and this was the perfect opportunity and thankfully Shannon agreed with my decision. For me I had no doubt about the fact that I didn't want to know but then after about 2 weeks of making the decision I got worried that I may have forced Shannon into it. I realized I sort of just stated the fact that we would not find out the gender till the baby would be born but I never really asked for any deep thoughts or concerns about it from Shannon. So I addressed the issue again with her and she assured me that she too didn't want to know. I realized that waiting till you actually have your baby to determine the gender is a thing of the past and very few people do it but to us it was very important to NOT know. I can't even put into words how it actually really felt to know all at the same moment that my wife was OK, my baby was OK, and that I was the father of a baby girl. The feelings of each thing just compounded upon itself exponentially. To hear "it's a girl" come out of the Doctor's mouth and to have the feelings I did was just beyond belief. It was so pure and so wonderful. We both enjoyed it so much that I am pretty sure that although impractical that we would once again wait till find out the gender should we chose to have another child.
The last big surprise was just how hard being a parent really is. It is nothing like what they say in books or training seminars. With Olivia being such a "high needs" baby, she really has just brought out so much in us that we both didn't even know we had. I have now seen my wife blossom into the most wonderful mother, full of strength and tenderness and myself love another person so wholeheartedly. I will have to openly admit that Shannon has really felt the lion share of the struggles with raising our child. She was the one at home the most during those fist months, the one who always got up in the middle of the night to feed Olivia or soother her. I really was shielded from a lot of the bigger struggles of caring for a new born because she so willing and actively took on those chores as loving mother. I could not have been blessed with a better wife and mother for my child.
So all these surprises combined have really made for a wonderful year and have made up quite a bit for what I have been lacking all my life in the surprise department.
November 07, 2010
How's it FLYing?
It has now been several weeks or more since I began intentionally trying to create new routines and patterns of doing things in order to keep my home from imploding! Some new things are working and some are not. In fact I learned one day last week that sometimes you just have to leave your house in shambles and not worry about it because you did the best you could.
New routine #1:
I wanted to experiment with making a weekly calendar for household chores, appointment reminders, etc. The format and items included have evolved several times over but I think I am finally happy with the version I am trying out for next week. Essentially it's just a table created in Microsoft Word that lists all the appointments for the week, the household chores that are needed (a rolling list so if something doesn't get done I just carry it over to make sure I don't forget) and a place to write my dinner plans in so I know what to thaw/buy at the grocery store. I also make notes of any special household projects I want to tackle.
New routine #2:
Doing a load of laundry a day is working well. I no longer find myself with multiple loads of laundry to do over the weekend which is wonderful. The folding is another thing though. My goal is to wash and fold one load per day but on occasion the folding gets put off til the next day. This week that happened a few times and tonight I realized I had three loads to fold. It took a long time - waaah!
New routine #3:
Meal planning is the "November Focus" on FLYlady.net and it came at a perfect time. I had just gotten to the point where it was either start meal planning or start working two jobs to eat out all the time! Last week I made a complete plan for dinners for the whole week AND put the needed items on the grocery list BEFORE we went to the store. That might be the first time that has happened in 3.5 years of marriage! It felt really good to have a plan and work my plan so I will continue to work on this.
New routine #4:
Using my time wisely is working though it does make me resentful at times so I know I need to find a balance. What I mostly mean when I say "using my time wisely" is that I don't spend time watching TV regularly anymore. I used to be a huge TV watcher, huge. I easily spent 10 or more hours per week watching TV shows. I do still watch TV but it is probably more like 3 hours a week and rarely on the same day the show airs. Instead I now take every opportunity to get my "To Do" list done. The downside to this is that I am very unbalanced right now in "taking care of myself". I need to work on finding the balance but overall I am happy with my progress in this area.
On my next FLYing update I hope to post some pictures that just might make your hair curl!
New routine #1:
I wanted to experiment with making a weekly calendar for household chores, appointment reminders, etc. The format and items included have evolved several times over but I think I am finally happy with the version I am trying out for next week. Essentially it's just a table created in Microsoft Word that lists all the appointments for the week, the household chores that are needed (a rolling list so if something doesn't get done I just carry it over to make sure I don't forget) and a place to write my dinner plans in so I know what to thaw/buy at the grocery store. I also make notes of any special household projects I want to tackle.
New routine #2:
Doing a load of laundry a day is working well. I no longer find myself with multiple loads of laundry to do over the weekend which is wonderful. The folding is another thing though. My goal is to wash and fold one load per day but on occasion the folding gets put off til the next day. This week that happened a few times and tonight I realized I had three loads to fold. It took a long time - waaah!
New routine #3:
Meal planning is the "November Focus" on FLYlady.net and it came at a perfect time. I had just gotten to the point where it was either start meal planning or start working two jobs to eat out all the time! Last week I made a complete plan for dinners for the whole week AND put the needed items on the grocery list BEFORE we went to the store. That might be the first time that has happened in 3.5 years of marriage! It felt really good to have a plan and work my plan so I will continue to work on this.
New routine #4:
Using my time wisely is working though it does make me resentful at times so I know I need to find a balance. What I mostly mean when I say "using my time wisely" is that I don't spend time watching TV regularly anymore. I used to be a huge TV watcher, huge. I easily spent 10 or more hours per week watching TV shows. I do still watch TV but it is probably more like 3 hours a week and rarely on the same day the show airs. Instead I now take every opportunity to get my "To Do" list done. The downside to this is that I am very unbalanced right now in "taking care of myself". I need to work on finding the balance but overall I am happy with my progress in this area.
On my next FLYing update I hope to post some pictures that just might make your hair curl!
November 04, 2010
Sweet moments...
Here are a few of my favorite recent Olivia moments...
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| Sweet sleepy girl (during the day)....a RARE moment! |
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Olivia is LOVING bath time these days and she is finally noticing her rubber duck! She smiles, giggles and kicks at him - it's so cute! |
November 03, 2010
New Adventure: Baby Food!
I was so excited to see these baby food freezer trays on my doorstep today! I bought some sweet potatoes earlier in the week and have been dying to try my hand at making my own baby food. So far I've tried Gerber rice cereal and mashed avocado with Olivia and she has not seemed too impressed with either. I am hoping that sweet potatoes will have a better reception.
I have been reading books and online articles for weeks about making your own baby food and decided it was something I'd like to do. I had a rather devastating failure with breastfeeding so I feel strongly about making the time investment to do this for my daughter. I don't have anything against jarred food and I'm sure we will use it occasionally so don't be offended!
So tonight while I was getting Olivia to bed Mark was baking the sweet potatoes in the oven. When I came downstairs they were ready to be peeled and pureed. I used our KitchenAid mixer and then pushed the sweet potatoes through a mesh screen colander to make sure all the fibrous strands were removed. It was a little more work than I thought but I ended up with 32 squares of sweet potatoes which will last a LONG time at the rate she is going!
Here is one of my trays - a little messy but fun!
HT Super Doubles
Super Doubles at Harris Teeter can yield lots of free or significantly reduced items! A lot of what I went for was already gone but I got 3 cans of cream of mushroom soup (which I need for a recipe next week), 2 lbs of spaghetti, 10 oz bottle of soy sauce, 3 pack of popcorn, tic tacs, advil (had coupon for free bottle), scrubbing bubbles toilet gel discs and frozen pierogies and refrigerated creamer (which I left at work) for $7.10 (would have been $30 at regular price). Yay for deals!
November 01, 2010
Weekend Wonders
Is this the sweetest little cow or what? Olivia had her first Halloween party on Sunday afternoon, hosted and attended by church friends who have babies around the same age. We dressed her as a cow since Mark loves cows and also in attendence were adorable monkey girl complete with cute tail and VERY sleepy dragon boy! Dragon boy was born on the same day as Olivia and in the same hospital. They both have jungle themed nurseries and Daddies with Jeeps! Monkey girl has beautiful blue eyes and LOVES her carseat! (Wish she would teach Olivia the joys of the carseat!)
On Saturday morning I noticed that her SECOND tooth had made its appearance! They are the sweetest little teeth just barely poking out of the gumline. It's so exciting to see her changing and growing! What a sweet blessing from God!
Now to switch gears I want to talk about something more serious. One of the primary reasons I started blogging was to share my journey through postpartum depression (PPD) in hopes that I might help someone else....a friend or family member who reads this blog or a stranger that just stumbles across it. I have many embarrassing things in my past and current life but I've always been an "open book" to others because I believe that God uses the 'weak' things to show His strength. So, with that being explained I'd like to share a little with you today.
It is so embarrassing to have PPD! No one talks about it for that very reason. What mother wants anyone to know she is not blissfully happy about her newborn? It is devastating to realize that one of the most wonderful things God has ever allowed you to experience is also causing you to become inexplicably saddened, filled with anxiety and thinking completely irrational thoughts. It is equally embarrassing to have to be put on medication for 6 months to a year in order to deal with those feelings productively. It's just embarrassing, embarrassing, embarrassing - there is no way around that but in order to get "better" I need to be open about my journey so that I can get the help I need and do what is best for my family.
So, how do you know when you are getting "better"? I think it is when you are willing to try "new things" you were too afraid to do before. For me, one of those things is taking my daughter out for an entire day including being in the car alone with her beyond the 5 minutes it takes to get her to and from her nanny. Why would that be such a big deal you wonder? Well, for me it is huge deal because in the early months of Olivia's life I was terrified to go anywhere with her. She was sooo unhappy and cried all the time. I could not handle it emotionally so eventually I just stopped trying and stayed at home all day everyday while I was on leave and even since returning to work have not been able to be out with her.
This weekend I knew that Mark would be busy all day and most of Saturday so I decided it was time to try a "new thing". In truth I felt afraid to be with my daughter alone all day (that's a "new thing" yet to be accomplished) so I decided I needed reinforcements. My mom will not drive to Raleigh because she hates traffic so I knew I would have to go to her instead. First I confirmed that she would be home and then I called my sister-in-law who is wonderful with my baby girl. She said she could come - yay! - but then I started thinking that two extra people might not be enough so I asked her to bring her mother too! I was getting an army together to help me with my first "new thing" because I did not want to fail!
So, Saturday I fed Olivia her first morning bottle, managed to keep her happy until the next bottle and after that we set out on our adventure. During the one hour drive she did exactly what strikes terror in my heart - screamed the entire way - I thought I was going to die. But somehow we made it to Rocky Mount and she promptly fell asleep until we pulled up in the driveway. Whew! Made it through the first leg of my "new thing"! There were 4 adults and 1 child total in addition to my girl when we set out to enjoy lunch. Between all of us we managed to keep her from screaming for a few hours. We went back home afterwards and my brother also joined our army and we kept her relatively happy for another few hours and then it was time for me to head back to Raleigh. I climbed in the car knowing the trip home might put me right over the edge and I was right, she screamed for 40 minutes straight (while I tried every music station and noise I could think to make) before she conked out. My nerves were in pieces but I made it home, got her ready for bed, fed and put her to sleep. It was rough but I did it - I tried a "new thing" and saw it through to the bitter end! I'm making progress people....slow as molasses but progress all the same!
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