Is It Possible To Love Carrots This Much?

My sister-in-law sends the family sweet weekly updates about her family, which I love to read. Most recently, when I responded to her, she requested back that we tell her the good recipes we tried during the week. The following is my response this month.

A couple of weeks ago we had Carrot Ginger Soup for dinner again. It's a soup that seems simple but tastes wonderful and surprisingly complex. I always forget just how tasty it really is until we serve it up again. Best part is that the kids love it--all of them. Also, there is that sweet little bit about adding a dollop of herbed butter and chopped peanuts to the individual portions that makes it irresistible and quite breathtaking aesthetically. For a gourmand, it is heavenly.

Recap: February 2012

In February we poured the concrete

tore down the stucco

Rocked out with cousins

Put up walls

and Worked on our studliness

For the Voyeur in You

I am blogging what I eat, again. It is really enormously telling to write down what you eat every day. I know that I, certainly, think twice about eating that entire bag of marshmallows when I know that my neighbor can read about it the next day. Oh my!

So, even though I am not counting calories right now....for the baby....I don't want to gain 50 pounds like I always, ahem, may have done in past pregnancies.

Please spy on me occasionally. It helps me be a good girl.

Recap: January 2012

In January we decided we needed more room

So we got working as a family on a remodel

Dirty. But, fun.

No Rest For the Wicked and the Righteous Don't Need It

Last year was unbelievably stressful eventful. Now that it is safely behind us, I think that Aaron and I are starting to sleep all the way through the night again.

But...lest we all get too comfortable, baby number five will be making his/her debut this fall. Ah, life! We can sleep when we're dead, right?

Now, sarcasm aside, I am so excited for this little one to come. We all know that the fifth child is the truly most interesting, most funny, most talented and most well-rounded of all possible children.

So...we have high hopes for this one.

Today Was Epic

[We've been staying in someone's guesthouse for the past month and a half while we finish the last work on our home remodel/addition project. The whole experience has been, well, stressful.]

September 20, 2012

4:40 am - The alarm goes off. Aaron hops in the shower. I put his pillow over my head.

5:15 am - Aaron kisses me goodbye.

7:30 am - I find A, lying on the bathmat with his pajamas around his ankles. "Good morning, Son."

8:00 am - E asks for breakfast "right now" for the third time. N walks in with a droopy dirty diaper.

8:17 am - A complains of stomach pains.

8:24 am - A throws up in the kitchen.

8:25 am - N unscrews his full sippy cup and dumps the entire cup of milk over his head and onto the queen bed.

8:30 am - Laundry time.

8:31 am - E asks about breakfast...again.

8:42 am - N unloads the dishwasher and finds a knife for each hand. Because of his siblings' "excited" reaction, he begins running through the house with said knives.

9:00 am - A throws up (in a bowl, this time).

9:17 am - Everyone enjoys breakfast, sans A.

9:23 am - E clogs the toilet.

9:25 am - A, sitting on a kitchen chair with the up-chuck bowl, looks at me with wide eyes and starts screaming "potty! potty!" I scoop him up and hurriedly run him to the bathroom, pulling his pants off as I run. We arrive at the clogged potty in record time, make a quick dismount, see our mistake, and then haul like crazy across the house to the other toilet. "Hold on little guy! Can you squeeze it in for a second more?" We make it--just in time.

9:30 am - Everyone gets dressed.

9:40 am - E wonders if he could "have a snack."

9:41 am - I start H on some math work. He complains and spends the next fifteen minutes crossing out math problems and throwing his math book.

9:45 am - I try to ignore H while E and I do his reading lesson in the living room.

10:00 am - A throws up again. I retrieve the bowl from the dishwasher just in time. "Let's just keep this thing out for the day, shall we?"

10:30 am - H finally finishes his math work. E finishes his reading. A emerges from the bedroom seeming brighter. "I feel much much better, Mommy!"

10:40 am - I find N unrolling the end of an entire roll of toilet paper.

10:45 am - I gather the kids in the car for our long trip of errands for the day.

10:50 am - A throws up in the car (in the bowl, thankfully).

10:51 am - I stop and empty the bowl.

10:55 am - Unbeknownst to me, H gives an apple cinnamon breakfast bar and a bottle of juice to N.

11:02 am - A throws up again.

11:05 am - We stop at Daddy's office for an errand. I empty the bowl and clean the apple cinnamon breakfast bar off of N, the car seat and the window. I stuff an extra shirt around N to sop up the spilled juice.

11:10 am - I eat the rest of a can of Pringles as I drive.
----

2:30 pm - We pull up to Lowe's, spend ten minutes getting the children's shoes back on, and wonder "what that horrible smell is..."

2:35 pm - E discovers the source of the odor (while I am trying to get him to find his shoes). "It's A's carseat Mom!"

2:36 pm - I ask A if he had an accident. He thinks for a minute and says "No." After some prodding, he replies, innocently, "I just passed some gas, and then it turned cold...like cold gas" Hmmmmmm.

2:40 pm - We hurry into Lowe's to make our return and then hop quickly over to Target to buy new underwear and new shorts for A.

2:50 pm - H disregards all direction I give him and leads his brothers directly into the path of oncoming traffic.

Mom is not happy. Not. Happy.

2:52 pm - H pouts in the car and refuses to come into the store.

3:38 pm - I buy a giant cookie and rice krispie treat.

----

5:23 pm - We arrive home. The air conditioner in the house appears to be broken.

5:25 pm - E asks if dinner is ready, for the fourth time. "No, son, I just barely walked in the door..."

6:00 pm - We have a quiet dinner without Daddy (again) while watching "Chopped." Everything is quiet for a few minutes.

6:39 pm - Aaron comes home. The kids play outside.

Clean up

Do the dishes

Finish the laundry

Bathe the kids

8:00 pm - Aaron walks over to the neighbor's house (the owners of the guesthouse) to have an awkward conversation about the broken A/C unit.

Neighbors were more than sweet. "Someone will be by first thing in the morning to fix it."

8:10 pm - Aaron leaves to go work on the remodel.

8:15 pm - I put the kids to bed with wet washcloths on their backs, open the windows, and set their fans to full blast.

At least it is not July--it might actually cool down outside at night.

9:33 pm - Aaron calls from the remodel. Our painter has just spent the last three hours painting the doors and trim a light pink color. "Wait a second....that's not exactly the color we asked the paint store to match..."

9:35 pm - Aaron pays the painter and they both call it a night.

9:47 pm - I can hear all of the kids still tossing in their beds. It is 86 degrees in the house.

The...Classical Academy for Boys

Several months ago I decided, definitively, to homeschool the children. We have been talking about it non-stop ever since and yesterday I dropped a LOT of bones ordering various items and curricula.

I cannot put into words how excited I am to take this step with my boys. They are brilliant and eager to learn, and I am eager to learn with them. Last month, in order to make it a little more fun for us all (we all need a little more fun, right?) I decided upon a name for my little school: the [Family Name] Classical Academy for *Boys and I have dubbed myself the illustrious Headmistress. We are currently toying with a few different ideas for mascot. Hahahahahahaha. The boys were full of lots of great ideas. Oh my!

Tomorrow, when I am feeling more serious, I will post some of my reasons, hope and dreams for this life-changing endeavor.

*Obviously this ending is negotiable and can be scrapped altogether if a feminine addition to the family ever surfaces (bless her heart). But in the meantime, it has a cute little ring to it. Don't you think? Adds substance (or false credence, maybe!).

One a Day

Last night some friends stopped by to help us load roof tiles onto the house--onto the addition. Pretty soon, some other friends, who were out for a walk, stopped to help. Next, someone from our ward drove by, noticed the party, and stopped to help. This was followed by another family in our ward and then our neighbors to the side. What was going to take Aaron and me several days of boring and back-breaking labor, took about two hours to accomplish.

People are so generous and so good.  And I am overwhelmed by the kindness.

Post-Christmas Post

Highs:

• Watching the boys romp around outside in shorts in the lovely mild December weather
• Going to a buffet and eating only one moderately sized plate of food. Deborah FTW!
• Overhearing one of the boys making "curried chicken" and "caviar" with their play dough
• Finalizing our home-addition plans
• Finally deciding to homeschool the little men--giving them a classical education (Latin anyone?)
• Disneyland with everybody for three beautiful days
• Attending Eliz's fabulous Christmas piano recital (tear up every time I go--she's THAT great)
• Starting to exercise at 5 am again and LOVING it
• Blogging less and reading more
• Watching Aaron get promoted at work
• Having a happy four-year-old (best age ever)
• 9:00 am church!
• Starting to have success with the YW planning their own activities
• Sharing a fabulous Christmas with my Father-in-law and Mother-in-law, both of whom I love very much
• Being happier than I ever have been before

Lows:

• "A" constantly wetting his pants (Though he somehow completely avoided this problem during our week in Disneyland. Laziness, maybe?)
• 90 minute wait times for rides at Disneyland--are you kidding me, people?
• Fattest I Have Ever Been. EVER.
• "A" biting one of the Christmas lights (I found him screaming in the living room spitting out blood and glass)
• Seriously moving into the life of the middle-aged middle-American--everything is full priced and heavily taxed
• *The fighting, the fighting, the fighting (scratching, shoving, biting, etc)
• Unhappy (and full out crazy) three-year-old (worst age ever)
• Wow, I tell you, laundry NEVER ends
• Home additions cost a lot of money
• Cement costs a lot of money
• Lumber costs a lot of money
• Everything boring that goes into a house costs a LOT of money

Why Aaron and I Keep These Crazies Around

Apparently H had some sort of assembly today involving "Chinese acrobats." He spent the after-dinner hour coaching E through various routines and tricks--jumping and twisting to the point of blurring the line between acrobatics and contortionism. After sufficient practice they called the family together for their opening revue. 

All tricks came to a untimely halt, however, when E, mounting on the top of H's prone body, planted his foot too close to...well, H's nether regions. "E you're off course, you're off course!" he frantically mouthed. 

Nothing is more fun than a night at home!

A Million and a Half Reasons Why I Should Have Won the Dairy Princess Crown

While I was making dinner tonight, I used some real parmesan cheese.  You know, the kind with the actual imprinted rind? I snitched a tiny bit of it as I shaved some over some bread dough. Wow! Nutty, slightly complex, a little salty and YUM! 

Remind me again why I buy the pre-grated stuff that smells like socks and tastes like sawdust?

A Series of Exceptions

Today went surprisingly well--considering the severe lack of sleep I have been experiencing lately. I actually exercised, read my scriptures, did a little laundry, and successfully avoided last night's candy haul. (Miracles will never cease!) I have decided to lose 50 lbs by next April. Oh, and skip sweets for awhile. (Do you like how non-chalantly I just typed that?) And, I LOVE that I decided to start this journey on the precipice of the holiday season. Gives it a little more of a challenge--something that seems to work well with my personality.

I actually feel pretty jazzed about dieting and exercising this time. I don't have the same overwhelming desire to stuff myself full of cookie dough on bad days like I used to. (Pity really. It made for entertaining blog posting and cookie dough is delish...) And ever since the daily exercising stint I experienced pre-baby, I have craved and enjoyed the feeling of a great workout.

The question, as always, is when. When to exercise when the baby is up all night? When to exercise when the others wake at 6, when we have to prep for school, and when picky-pants (E) absolutely and tearfully at times insists on a hot breakfast? Not to mention all of the other things that scream for my attention.

Today, however, while grappling with this question, I remembered the great secret that I have already realized before. Successful people do what they should do and what they want to do every single imperfect day regardless of what is going on, because life is a series of exceptions.

Frankly, I don't know if I'll ever have a full week where everything goes smoothly enough at home for me to perfectly exercise and perfectly do all of the other small but important things that I need to do.

So, today, I decided to do it no matter what.

Don't Judge Me

I bought "pajama jeans" today. 

And they're smoking hot, people!

Post Script: Food Fancies #2

Only one fleeting craving today:

Peanut Butter Cookies

Well, actually, I was really toying with the idea of making PB cookie dough, crumbling it over several cups of raw oats, raisins (or dried cranberries), toasted coconut, chopped almonds, and chopped chocolate pieces and making it into some heavenly granola. Good idea, don't you think?

Maybe one day...

Skivvies

  

Tonight was one of those great Summer nights where we had a leisurely family dinner followed by friends stopping by to chat. Pretty soon the kids were splashing around with the backyard hose in their underwear.

I rocked in the easy chair and nursed the babe while watching the boys soak in the last sunshine rays of the day. Oh how I love these quiet and happy Summer nights!

Pretty soon, A came in to take a shower, and before I knew it he was asleep in the hallway with nothing but a damp towel on.

I truly think motherhood is happier for me with four kids. I never would have let H as a toddler fall asleep on the floor (bad parenting for sure!). But tonight it seemed like the perfect ending to a hot day.

Food Fancies a la Mode

I am horribly overweight, again. Ok, maybe not horribly. But unacceptably.

I am trying to diet...kind of. I just keep falling off the wagon...like every night.

So tonight, instead of caving into that bowl of ice cream I am starting a new series of posts--that of confessing my unrequited food cravings of the day. Maybe just saying it will be enough.

---

I really wanted (but did not make [and then eat]) the following:

• Warm Berry Crostada with Ice Cream
• Peach Cobbler with Ice Cream
• Vanilla Ice Cream with a generous dollop of natural peanut butter, homemade fudge sauce a la Ashley, and a few crushed pretzels for some salty crunch
• A tube or two of Bottlecaps candies

---

Are we sensing a theme here? And I don't even really like ice cream! Maybe it is just the fact that I am trying to avoid sweets this month (ha!). How do people survive without dessert, I ask you?!? The whole thing just makes me feel very very angry at the world.

Not that what I did eat was stellar. It just seems a little hard right now--trying to get everything to work correctly. Having a newborn has thrown me off my groove as far as exercising goes. And it takes considerably longer for me to weigh all of the food I make. 

Alas I guess that is life. Maybe next week I will really motivate/embarrass myself by revealing my weight to the world. 

Confession is good for the soul.

Things That I May Never Understand, Part 1

• those naked girl-devil profile sticker things that men have on their truck back windows
• trucks with lift packages
• women driving huge trucks with lift packages (with weird girl-devil stickers on the windows...)
• packaged iceberg lettuce salads (with the red cabbage shreds)
• large sized bras without underwire
• facebook games
• leggings
• skinny jeans
• Jolly Ranchers and/or Now & Laters
• Lady Gaga
• female rockers (like Pat Benatar...)
• fabric softener
• any ready made "dough" by Pillsbury

to be continued...

Stretchy Pants - Hate Them, Love Them

I am food journaling again...

greeneyeddebonadiet.blogspot.com

And, by jingo, I will fit my clothes again. One day.

NoNo

And the little angel has gone three nights, now, sleeping for 8 hours straight. We love this little sweetie.

Baby Boy Number Four Arrives

Sometime during the first night home I turned to Aaron and told him in tears "we may just have four children..." But sitting here holding this little guy today and seeing the sunshine outside, I bet I could do it again.

We are so glad he is here.