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[This post will change over time.  I'd like to do a lot more with it so check back in a few weeks]

last updated 1/22/12

When we got pregnant with our first baby, we took the minimalist approach.  We don’t need all that stuff that Babies R’ Us tells us we need.  The swings, the monitors, the chairs, the clothes.  We don’t need any of that.  Our parents and grandparents did without all that stuff, so can we.  So we welcomed our beautiful baby girl with no monitor, no bouncer, no changing table.  We had the essentials – bottles, some breastfeeding gear, carseat, stroller, clothes – but not much else.  We didn’t even have a crib.  And that’s exactly the way we wanted it.

Then life happened.  That beautiful baby girl hated sleep.  And hated not being held every second of the day.  It took little time to convince us that we needed “stuff”.  Not every last thing out of a Parents magazine, but anything that would get us 5 more minutes of glorious, wondrous sleep or even just enough time to run to the bathroom to pee.

That is what I offer here.  What “stuff” made our lives a little easier.  What worked for us.  It might not work for you, but, hey, that’s what advice is.  Especially here on a blog, you can take it or leave it, and our poor friends now won’t have to listen to me droning on and on about why we chose a Moby over a Snugli.  I also hope this is helpful for friends who have no idea what to buy their pregnant friends.

Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby – Marc Weissbluth

As I said previously, our first baby was a H-O-R-R-I-B-L-E sleeper.  I was teetering on the brink of insanity I was so sleep deprived.  This book changed our life.  It saved our marriage, it saved me, it totally changed our life.  Trust me, I went through a million sleep books.  I tried the No-Cry Sleep Solution, Kim West, Happiest Baby on the Block, and endless web forums.  This one works.  It’s hard and you really have to commit to it and stick with it.  It took us about 6 months to get O’s sleeping on track but now she sleeps 11 hours straight at night and takes a 1.5 hour nap during the day regularly.  She’s 2.

The Birth Book – Dr. Sears

I also read a lot of books on birth.  For me this was just the right mix of hippy and mainstream info that I needed to know.

The Vaccine Book – Sears

Even if you never jumped on the vaccines-could-be-bad bandwagon, this is a very informative book that really all parents should read so that they know what they’re injecting their kids with.

Hungry Monkey – Matthew Amster-Burton

So funny and a great book for dads.  It includes some recipes but I just like the story about this guy and his daughter.  It’s not sappy.  Just witty and real.

The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding – La Leche League

If you are breastfeeding, this is a must-have reference book.  I didn’t read it cover to cover but when I have a question, it always has the answer.

Sleeping with Your Baby: A Parent’s Guide to Cosleeping – James McKenna

Co-sleeping seemed so second nature to me.  Probably because my parents co-slept with me so I just assumed that everyone did it.  We didn’t even buy a crib until Olivia was about 9 months old.  After having kids though, I’ve found that this is an extremely controversial subject with people on both sides completely convinced that the other side is a group of blubbering idiots.  I don’t think co-sleeping makes you a good or a bad parent, it just worked for us.  And it makes breastfeeding soooo much easier.  Or rather you’ll (the mom) get way more sleep doing it.  So if you’re thinking of co-sleeping, please read this book.  It teaches you everything you need to know to SAFELY co-sleep.

Lauren crib – Graco

Our girls are so close in age that we actually bought two of these.  They are very sturdy and look nice.  This crib is the least expensive crib we could find that fell into both those categories.

Breathable Bumpers

I think the biggest fear every mother has is that her baby will suffocate or stop breathing.  I feel like everything you read about babies somehow mentions how they could die from suffocation.  So of course when I heard about those pillow-y bumpers being dangerous, these seemed an obvious alternative.  You really do need bumpers because newborns have this uncanny ability to never move but the second you’re not looking get a leg stuck through the crib slats.  Just buy these.  Once less scenario of how-can-my-baby-die-if-I’m-not-staring-at-them that has to run through your head.

Sleep Sheep

Seems stupid but we have used this everyday since we bought it.  We still use it.

Nosefrida

This is one of the most useful things you will ever buy.  It is completely assured that one day your baby will have such a stuffy nose that you will have to suck out their boogers.  This works way better than those bulb syringe things.  I could never get the hang of those.  Babies don’t like this, but it is very effective.  Just spray some saline drops in each nostril and suck those pesky boogers out.

Itzbeen

This was only useful for us for the first 6 weeks or so.  But during those first 6 weeks, you’re so groggy from lack of sleep that it may seem like you just changed the baby’s diaper an hour ago and it was actually 5 hours ago.  This just helps you keep track of all that.

Exersaucer

All babies love these.  All of them.  And you’ll need a place to put them while you scarf down a quick bowl of cereal so just buy it.  Trust me, those 2 minutes of not holding the baby make a big difference.

Changing Table

We did without one for about 18 months.  Then we gave in and got one.  I wouldn’t say it’s a necessity.  You can change a baby on the floor or on a bed but a changing table is mighty convenient and saves your back from bending over so much.

Aden + Anais blankets

Again, this is mostly an item to keep you from envisioning your baby suffocating because the blanket somehow covered the baby’s head.  They’re so thin, that even if they did cover the baby’s head, the baby would have no problem breathing through it.  One less thing to worry about.  They are my favorite blankets and, really, the only ones I use.

Medela Harmony Breast Pump

It’s a handheld pump.  Since I stayed home with the girls, I only pumped a bottle once in a long while and it worked fine enough.  Pumping is terrible and you’ll never grow to like it but this one was fine enough.

My Brest Friend

My first baby, along with being a horrible sleeper, was really bad at breastfeeding.  It took about 3 months to finally get the hang of it.  This pillow made all the difference.  At first I tried a Boppy which works for a lot of people.  But if you struggle with breastfeeding, you should get this pillow.  It just made my life better.  It was more comfortable and stable.  I didn’t have to worry about it sliding and messing up O’s latch which probably had taken me 5 attempts to get just right.

Lanolin

No matter how good at breastfeeding your baby is, your nipples will get sore.  Use this.  It really does make you feel better.

Washable Breast pads

Throw-away breast pads were fine in a pinch but these were way more comfortable.

Breastfeeding cover

I held out buying one for a long time because I thought a blanket could do the same thing.  Wrong.  Eventually you’re little one will start squirming and pulling, thus, inevitably, pulling a blanket down just as a stranger has stopped to comment on what cute little feet your baby has.  A breastfeeding cover just ensures that your baby can never wriggle in a way that exposes you to the world when you don’t want that.

Diaper Dekor pail

We also fought this purchase for a long time.  But eventually we got tired of walking down to the dumpster every half day.  This works really well at keeping in the smell.

Baby Bjorn bib

This is the only bib you have to buy.  Seriously.  You won’t need any other food bib whatsoever.

Video monitor with night vision

No matter how much you fight it.  At some point you’re going to have to let your kid cry in their room.  When this time comes, you will praise God for this invention.  This stops you from going into your baby’s room every 5 minutes to make sure they are still breathing or to make sure they haven’t gotten their head stuck through the crib slats.

Rocking chair

A must-have.  Start saving now; they aren’t cheap.  We bought a cheap Cracker Barrel rocking chair at first.  What a waste of money.  Just get a good quality glider.  I think I’ve spent more time in that thing over the last two years than anything else, including my bed.

Sandy’s Shoes

This is for when the baby gets older and is needing good shoes.  This is a little local store that is wonderful.  Really great customer service and you never have to worry about buying bad shoes.  All their shoes are great for kids.  They also have a great collection of toys.

Pacifier clip

Neither of our kids took to using pacifiers but these pacifier clips work great of things other than pacifiers.  Babies love to throw things on the floor so just attach their favorite stuffed animal or sippy cup of whatever with these things and you won’t have to worry about it falling on some gross restaurant floor.

Beaba food maker

Probably the funniest realization I had while preparing for baby #1 is that I could make baby food.  I thought all babies had to eat the jarred stuff because it had something special for them.  This food maker is not a necessity but if you’re planning on making your own baby food it makes it really easy and saves different pots and pans and blenders from washing.

Little Partners Learning Tower

Best. Invention. In. The. World.  When O got older we would get into so many fights because she wanted to see what I was cooking or because she wanted to see what was on the counter.  This ended all those fights.  And you don’t have to worry about them falling off a bar stool and breaking their arm (that actually happened to some friends of ours).

Moby

This is the first baby carrier I used.  O loved it and I carried her in it for about a week straight when we visited New York and just walked all day.  I like it in the winter.  In the summer, it’s a lot of fabric and gets really hot.

Baby Bjorn

Lina hated the Moby since day one.  We bought this second hand and Brandon loves to use it.  It’s more masculine than the Moby.  I never liked it.  It always hurt my back but probably because it is set for Brandon’s height.

Amazon Mom

We get our diapers, formula, and wipies through this.  We have saved a ton of money and we never have to deal with running out of this stuff because it just shows up on our doorstep.

Cart cover

You don’t want your kid sucking on the HEB shopping carts or the Kerbey Lane high chairs.  It just makes me feel better.

Prenatal yoga – Yoga Yoga – Alice Duffy

This is probably the best advice I could give you.  People have told me in the past that they aren’t “yoga people”.  Uh, honey, neither am I.  I’m the most awkward, clumsy person you’ll meet but this makes a big difference.  It’s not like you can run while you’re pregnant or do kickboxing or anything.  This makes all these really important birthing muscles strong.  I took prenatal yoga at Yoga Yoga starting at about 24 weeks.  I tried out a bunch of different teachers but Alice Duffy was by far my favorite.  Her classes are always packed.  I went to prenatal yoga twice a week for my first pregnancy and then 0 times a week with my second.  In labor and birth it made a big difference.  With my second baby I wasn’t as strong and I could tell while laboring my legs got a lot more tired and pushing was harder because I just wasn’t in shape the way yoga makes you in shape.  Just try it out a couple of times.  If anything, it’s just nice to stretch and move with a bunch of other pregnant women.

Diaper bags – Not these: Columbia Trekster bag, Skip Hop bag

I don’t have a good suggestion about a diaper bag.  We never found one that worked great for us.  We just eventually settled on something that works, kinda.  But we did get these two bags and they definitely didn’t work for us.  The Columbia bag was a weird shape and didn’t hold that many things as a result.  And the Skip Hop bag didn’t have zippers for all the middle pockets which means if you had the bag and and bent over to pick up your little one, stuff would fall out.  Whatever bag you buy, just make sure every compartment zips.

PLAN toys

Enviromentally sound and wonderful.  Great gift-giving presents.

Dirt Devil Gator 10.8V

I bought this thinking I could use it for the stairs.  That didn’t work, it doesn’t have enough suction for that but what I did find was that it is perfect for sucking up the piles of stuff after you sweep. We have to sweep a lot because the little one eats everything she can find on the floor.  This makes after-sweeping so easy.

Shark Steam mop

If you have hardwood floors, you’ll want to get this.  You won’t have to worry about using chemicals or cleaners to clean the floor.

Playtex Coolster Tumbler Sippy Cup

My daughter had this cup and a speech therapist that works with infants came up to us and praised us for using the perfect sippy cup.  I faked a knowing head nod and thanked God for leading me to pick the shiny purple cup over Dora.  A total accident that we bought this, but hey, if speech therapists like it, so do I.

Of course, in the end, you don’t NEED all this stuff.  People have raised kids for centuries without anything.  But it does make life a bit easier.  But don’t freak out, you won’t need all this stuff before the baby comes.  You’ll piece it together as months and years go on.  And if you register for all this stuff, you’ll probably get a lot of it at baby showers.  We got a lot of this gear as gifts.

The best thing in the end you can do for your baby is to be physically and mentally prepared for the adventure.  Good luck!

Image by barrettmanor via Flickr

Started work this week.  I love my job.  I do.  It is my dream job.  Problem is, I still want to be home with the Squeaker and Chubs more than my dream job.  But that’s life.  Lots of people would prefer to be home with their kids and can’t be because of financial reasons.  I understand that plight now.  My job provides us a steady income.  No commissions to mess with.  And I get maternity care on their insurance should I need that again.

But on Monday I cried.  A lot.  I woke up and held Chubs and cried.  I went and got the Squeaker out of her crib when she woke up and cried.  I fed Chubs and put her down to nap and cried.  I said goodbye to the Squeaker and cried.  But I got it together put on my brave face and walked into work with not a shadow of a quivering lip.

Then I went upstairs to talk to the HR person about insurance and how much it would cost to put the fam on my insurance — you know, since the insurance was a big part of taking the job.  $100 more than what we are paying now.  Wait, what?  It used to be much less.  Oh, rates went up last year?  Oh, my take home pay will be roughly equal to what Brandon was making?  Oh, my husband just quit his job so I could take this one and we are pretty much in the exact same place?  Oh, all those plans we made to use and save the extra money I was going to be making are now for nothing?  One tear rolled down my cheek.  Then another.  I couldn’t stop them.  I was proud that I stopped myself just short of blubbering.  But I did it.  I cried at work.  And our HR person gently told me she understood and to go ahead and cry.  So I did.  For a good five minutes.

So instead of thinking about it more and feeling terrible, I’m going to compile a list.  Because I can control lists.  This list is 10 things that are worse than having to leave your kids at home because you have to work:

10) Having to sleep train your kid.
9) Having to watch episodes of Star Trek with Scott Bakula.
Having to get through mile 18 of a marathon.
7) Having to watch a Katie Perry interview.
6) Having to watch the Bachelorette.
5) Having to deal with your kid who decides to put her hand down her diaper that is full of poo.
4) Getting a sunburn and your nose being the only part the peels.
3) Accidentally eating the tripe in menudo.
2) Having no way to support your family.
1) Having no Squeaker or Chubs to support.

Image by LotusMonger via Flickr

Today was the first day that Olivia told me “I love you”.  Unprompted.  She has said I love you before but in response to us telling her to say it.

But today, we were both sitting around on a bunch of pillows half watching Martha Speaks and half playing around and she stopped and looked at me and said “Ah luh u”.  She can’t pronounce her Ls so she says N instead.  But she can say the L in love.  Funny.

Ah luh u, too, mija.

Image by epSos.de via Flickr

I’ve heard that people have different love languages.  Some people show their love through writing poems or notes to their loved ones.  Some keep a clean house and make good food.  Some pay the bills and mow the lawn on a regular basis.  Some are affectionate and lovey.  And some show their love through money.

I bet a lot of people fall under the last one.  I know my parents do.  Like crazy do.  They show their love through buying stuff.  Even when you tell them to stop buying stuff.  They can’t.  They don’t know how else to show their love.  They think they are being helpful and trying to make our lives better by buying us stuff and the girls stuff.  They’re just trying to make our lives easier.

Of course they are coming from a good place.  They don’t do it to show off or to make us feel bad.  They really just want to help.  But they don’t get it.  They’ve never understood that I am just not programmed to want more and more stuff.  I want a simple life with simple things.  Of course I’ll take nice gifts when they are practical, like the food processor I got for Mother’s Day.  Love it.  Wanted it.  Got it.  But I don’t need iWhatevers, I don’t need big TVs, I don’t need new cars, I don’t need really nice furniture.

Nor do I want it for my kids.  I don’t want them to grow  up expecting stuff all the time.  I want them to appreciate things when they get them because it is a special occasion, not just because grandma and grandpa are in town every other weekend.

I’ve had the conversation with them over and over.  I have explicitly told them not to buy things.  I’ve even mentioned some specific things.  And they don’t listen.  They still buy them.  Even the specific things.  It makes me so mad.  And frustrated.  And when I am overflowing with righteous indignation I can’t bring myself to tell them because it makes them so happy to give us stuff.  My mom always uses the line “Well, would you prefer us to be the other way.  Never care, never get you anything.”  She’s used this line my whole life.  No, of course not.  But neither extreme is good.

The time when this ongoing argument comes to a head most is when we are throwing parties.  I like to do everything.  I mean everything.  I like to cook the food, make the decorations, everything.  I show my love through making stuff for people.  It means more.  Sure I could buy a really cute, perfect puppy costume for Olivia for Halloween but I don’t want to.  I want to make it myself.  Why?  Because something handmade and homemade will mean more everytime.  Even if it’s not perfect, even if the ears keep falling and the arms are too tight.  It means more than $10 at Target.

My parents don’t understand this at all.  At all.  Whenever we are planning something they always swoop in and just want to buy everything.  Why would you make cookies?  Just buy some.  Why would you cook quiche?  Just buy it.  Why would you make bread?  Just buy it.  It’ll save time and be easier.  And then I just feel stupid and I don’t want to explain myself again and I just give in.  Disheartened.

Or like Olivia’s Elmo birthday party that is coming up.  I made the invitations.  I’m making her birthday banners, party hats, cupcake wrappers, cupcake toppers, cupcakes, and goodie bags.  And I told my parents this.  They go to Party World and call me.  Hey mija, there are some cupcake toppers here, how many should we buy?  None, I already made them.  They’re really cute; they have Elmo on them.  No, we don’t need any; I already made them.  Oh, so you don’t want us to buy any?  No.  Ok, so you don’t want us to buy any cupcake toppers?  No.  Are you sure?  Yes, I’m sure, I already made them.  Ok.

They know that we are always running around like crazy and don’t have enough time to do things that we want so they just want to make our lives a little easier.  But life should be hard.  I should have to work on invitations and decorations for weeks to get ready.  I want to do this.  I want my daughters to understand that putting your own work into something will make that more special then anything you could ever buy.  Ever.  Money cannot buy the pride you feel when you see your  little girl running around in a pretty crappily made puppy costume.  Money cannot buy the feeling you get when everything looks great and was made by your own hands.  Money can’t buy the feeling you get when everyone is sitting around a table eating something delicious that you made.

Money can’t buy love.  And it can’t prove it.  And it can’t show it.

Image via Wikipedia

But first, a quick aside – isn’t this new site so pretty?  B is amazing and worked super hard to get the way I wanted it.  And I’m really picky.  Um, hun, could you just left justify that word but leave the rest centered? Um, could you make that the same color as the rest?  Actually, no, can you change the color?  Um, can you pick another graphic?  No, I don’t like that, go back to the first.  Poor guy.  But he loved every second of it.  He talked to me endlessly about all the different coding and other things I did not even begin to grasp.  I imagine this is what he feels like when I talk about clothes or fabric and stuff.

So, welcome to my new site.  I hope you like it.  I love it!  It’s just so pretty

Ok, back to the drinks.  Since January of 2009 I have only been able to drink beer or other alcoholic beverages with no concern of its effects on my babies for 2 months.  If that.  I weaned Olivia and then got pregnant pretty soon after so it actually may have only been a few weeks.  Now, if you know me, you know I love beer.  Even more than margaritas or mojitos or wine.  So having to go without for so long, I decided to do something about it this summer.  I decided to find non-alcoholic drinks that I liked more than beer that don’t contain high fructose corn syrup.  Thing is these drinks are expensive and hard to find.  So I decided to make my own.  And they are amazingly deee-licious.

Here are the recipes if you want to try them.  Seriously when I’m drinking this stuff I don’t envy Kraft who is downing a Bud Light Lime one little bit.

Basil Lemonade: This is a Giada recipe.  Honestly I don’t have much luck with her recipes.  Every time I cook something of hers, it doesn’t come out well but I had so much basil from our CSA box that I had to find something that used a lot of it fastbefore it turned brown and gross.  I will warn you, though, for sure water this puppy down A LOT.  I only use about half the sugar that the recipe calls for and use about 2-3 cups more of water.  Oh, and if you want to feel fancy, which I usually do if I’m trying to not think of beer, use sparkling water.

Orange Mint Tea: This is from my Mennonite cookbook.  Again, I needed something that used a lot of mint quickly, although it does hold up better than basil.  Obviously, this recipe is not on the web so I’m going to give it to you from the book – Bring 3 cups of water to a boil.  Put in bunch of mint, turn off burner, and cover.  Let steep for 20+ minutes.  Stir in 1/3 cup of sugar.  Add 2 cups of orange juice (no pulp makes it better).  Add 1/2 cup lemon juice (I add more).  Stir, then add water until it’s no longer strong for you.

Knockoff Arizona Green Tea with Honey and Ginseng:  The last drink I found was really more for my dad.  My dad gets swept up in fad diets and fad exercising equipment all the time.  The latest diet he was reading about said that he should drink lots of green tea.  Now my dad does not take to structure at all so he ignored the rest of the diet but decided that he would stick to the green tea thing.  So what has he been guzzling down?  Arizona Green Tea.  Yuck.  Might as well be a Coke.  So I asked him if I could make a tea that tastes better, would he drink that instead of the Arizona stuff?  Sure.  Ok, so I embarked on a quest to find something he liked better.  Apparently a lot of people have set out on this quest.  So it was actually no quest at all, I just googled Arizona green tea with ginseng and there was the recipe.  Although I would suggest using 2-3 tea bags instead of just one.  I like my tea strong.  Oh, and I left out the ginseng.  We just didn’t have it.  Nor do I even  know what it is.

So if you are pregnant, nursing, or don’t have the same affinity for beer that I have, try these recipes out.

Welcome to the new V’s Voice. I hope you will find Vanessa’s site visually appealing, more feature rich and easier to use. If something within the design or structure doesn’t seem to make sense, leave a comment on this post and let us know. As you, the readers, continue to explore the site, we will continue to tweak and improve areas that we may have missed during the initial creation.

On the front-end, in addition to a whole new visual look, you’ll notice some great features. The homepage now has a slider for the three most recent posts—a quick and easy way to see V’s latest thoughts. The top has two navigational bars. The blue bar is for Vanessa’s primary writing categories and the pink tabs are for special pages. There are two additional features to assist you in finding Vanessa’s content—a search feature and a “tag cloud” with her category names sized based on the number of articles she has written under each category.

We added two features to help interact with you, her readers. The first is an e-mail notification of her new posts. You can subscribe at the bottom of any page and you will get a daily e-mail any day that V posts. No posts, no e-mail. Five posts in a day, one e-mail. This is in addition to the instant notification available through her RSS feed. Secondly, we have migrated to the Disqus commenting system. This system, used by a wide variety of sites, includes greater functionality to continue the discussion, including my favorite of being able to not only receive notification of a new comment, but be able to reply-by-email to respond.

In short, I am excited to be able to construct this new site for Vanessa and she is excited about the refreshed platform for sharing her thoughts with the world.

Image via Wikipedia

From the beginning, Brandon and I have been in love, love, love with The Voice.  We’ve watched it from its first airing.  The following are things that I think would make it better for its second season:

1) Cee Lo.  You are a brilliant, brilliant entertainer and I enjoy your part of the shows more than anyone else’s.  I even like that you wear sunglasses all the time.  Even in a dark room.  Keep these on.  But please, please wear pants that fit your crotch.  I know that sounds weird but the fact that the crotch of your pants is about a foot lower than your actual crotch just makes you look like a little person.  Very disproportionate.  Oh and the outfit you wore tonight – matronly.  I never thought I would call a man’s outfit matronly, but it was.  The red and black with the flower rhinestones.  It was not good.  It looked like an outfit for a mother of the bride.  Love you and your performing style and pizazz, do not like your regular clothes.

2) I’m sorry that I am advocating for someone to lose their job, but Allison Haislip.  I’m sorry, she has to go.  Not just her but her position.  I do not need a V correspondent.  I do not need someone to ask the performers questions from Twitter.  I do not need someone to read facebook comments to me on tv.  If I wanted to hear this, I would get online and read it.  I hated this part of the show.  So stupid and a total waste of time.

3) The episodes do not need to be 2 hours long.  This is another waste of time.  Make it fit an hour.  It doesn’t make me watch for 2 hours.  It makes me turn it off when I realize that I will have to watch a whole additional hour and makes me not want to continue watching it next time.

4) While I always thought Carson Daly was a tool, this actually made me like him a lot.  He really is a good host.  He had no problem handling all the live shows.  He is a really good facilitator with funny side comments.  He is very good at his job.

5) Christina, you are great, but you looked the best in this last show.  I don’t like the Madonna look you’re going for.  It doesn’t seem to suit you.

6) One of the performers tonight came out with a rosary around his neck.  If you’re going to wear a rosary, could you please at least not put your hand on your dancer’s ass?  I don’t think that is too much to ask.

7) Love, love, love Blake Shelton.  Wish I could drink a beer with him.

I think Javier Colon should win.  With Dia as a close second.  As Brandon put it, I would buy Dia’s CD but I would go to Javier’s concert and buy his CD.

Not that anyone at NBC is going to read this.  But that’s my two cents.  I can now stop yelling these things at the TV.

Image by NatalieMaynor via Flickr

I am totally, completely, absolutely in love with the idea of getting all of our food locally.  From local farms.  Local chickens.  Local pigs.  Local cows. Local McDonalds.  You get it.  It is one of the reasons I love Austin and never want to move away.  We can actually do this.  We gets most of our veggies from our CSA with Johnson’s Backyard Garden (which is freakin’ awesome by the way).  There are tons of farms around that we can get fresh eggs, local meat, fresh milk, shoot, even fish.

Today we went to the Farmer’s Market and I needed to buy food for the camp we are helping with next week (I’ll write more about this another day).  On Friday we will be providing lunch for them and all the food will be organic or locally sourced.  That day we will be teaching them about responsible consumerism when it comes to food.  So I planned out a simple menu and went around getting everything I could from the FM.  We’re making BLTs so I got bacon and  mustard from Dai Due and tomatoes from JBG.  For the vegetarians, I bought Hummus from the Mediterranean Chef (I would have made it myself except I can’t figure out how to make it taste good no matter how many times I make it – which is at least 50 times).  I looked for lettuce but it’s so hot that it’s out of season now.  I’m making mint orange tea so I bought some mint from JBG also.  Later on in the week I’m going to buy blackberries from one of the farm stands and bread from Texas French Bread.  It’s just awesome how I can get almost an entire meal from local, sustainable sources.

I’m also starting to understand the value of making things when they are in season and freezing them for when they are not.

I guess this all just makes me feel like part of the world.  The part of the world that doesn’t live off of quarter pounders and coke.  The part that lives of the bounty of the earth.  I’m not going to say something as cliche as it makes me feel like I’m in a rhythm with the earth but I do.  It also just makes me appreciate the earth and the seasons a lot more.

Man, if you thought I was hippie before coming to Austin, think of where I’m going to be in 10 years.  Probably taking care of my own cows for milk and chickens for eggs.  Hmm, that would be cool.

Anyways, I totally buy into this food revolution thing.  I don’t like Jamie Oliver.  I think he is super aggressive and hostile but I completely agree with his message and am happy he is doing what he is doing even if he’s doing it in a pain in the ass kind of way.  If you could taste some of the delicious food we’ve been eating because of these veggies we are getting, you’d see how easy it would be to be part of a revolution that just tastes so darn good and no bloodshed.  You can’t really beat that.

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In a marriage it is so easy to get frustrated with your spouse and just go crazy nit-picking at every little thing that he does wrong.  I do it all the time.  Really I do.  Just ask him.  I’m such a hard-ass sometimes.  But my husband is wonderful.  And this is why.

Because he still faithfully checks this blog most days hoping that I have started writing on it again even though he knows I probably haven’t.  It has been almost a year exactly since I last wrote.  So he has been checking for a year now.  He pushes me so much to write because he knows I love it.  Even when I don’t feel like writing he is always so encouraging.  He loves that I love something that he can help me with.  I don’t know anything about techie stuff.  All I do is write and he figures out the rest, the website, the graphics, etc.

Another reason I love him, he lets me do the most ridiculous things and doesn’t bat an eye at it.  I just purchased 20lbs of tomatoes from the farm that we get veggies from.  20!  That is ridiculous.  Most husbands would have said, “Uh, honey, are you sure?  When are you going to find the time use up all those tomatoes?  We are helping lead a camp next week, we’re still working on our talks and stuff for the camp, not to mention we have 2 little ones.  What the hell are you thinking?”  He didn’t say any of that.  Just said, “Yeah, sounds good.  Maybe you could make homemade ketchup like Jamie Oliver.”

He’s wonderful and I love him dearly…most days

Anywho, I’m back.  I hope to make writing on here much more common.  It’s nice to have this space.

Now I am going to continue researching tomato recipes.  20lbs isn’t going to cook itself.

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Last night was not great, to say the least.  The Squeaker screamed off and on for 1 hour 43 minutes.  She just would not sit down or lie down until she was so extremely exhausted that she slumped down.  Here legs were out in front of her in a wide V and she was slumped forward as if she was stretching to touch her toes.  And this is how we found her dead asleep.  We didn’t want to move her because we know she needs to learn how to do this on her own.  So we made some noise so that she would wake up and hopefully just reposition her body and go right back to sleep.  Nope.  She woke up screaming and stood up in her crib again until she slumped down again.  Not laying down, sitting down hunched into a ball. 

What a stubborn ass.  I am certain she knows how to sit in her crib.  She goes from standing to sitting all the time.  She is just so freakin’ stubborn.  I know where she gets it from but, man, this makes life so hard right now.  She’s not learning how to soothe herself.  She is crying to the point of exhaustion and passing out.  This does not teach her to sleep.  In fact this is why all the other methods didn’t work because they caused the same problem. 

O, just go to sleep.  Just lay down and go to sleep.  Is it really that hard?

On the up side, she was so happy today.  Made me feel like we’re not scarring her for life.