A Girl After Two Boys

Can I make a confession?

I am absolutely terrified that we are having a baby girl.

I'm also excited, overjoyed, already in love, and absolutely looking forward to meeting my little girl. Just like with my boys, I have high hopes for her and I know that she will go on to do great things in her own way and time.

But I'm also scared. Teaching things like positive body image, not to take crap from anyone (especially boyfriends), true femininity and womanhood, what it means to be truly respected and respect others, good relationships, etc. intimidates the heck out of me. Part of me wants to keep her in a little bubble for forever, but I realize that's completely impractical and no way to live.

I don't have these fears with the boys. Maybe it's because I know how I was when I was growing up (yikes), maybe it's from personal experiences and choices that I made growing up. I want to protect her from some of those experiences and bad choices, and from all of the bad things that can happen out in the world. But I realize that this is not a practical way to approach raising a girl vs. raising boys.

So, dear friends, how does a mother teach her daughter self love and positive body image when mom struggles with both? And how does a mother teach her daughter to be more discerning with her relationships than her mother was? And how does a mother protect her daughter from all of the things that can hurt her and the bad decisions that she can make without locking her up or sending her off to a nunnery?

The best place I can think to start is by making sure hubs and I have a strong and positive relationship. And by hubs showing Emma how a man should treat a woman. Hubs and I need to model healthy communication, appreciation, respect, conflict resolution, and, of course, love, affection and intimacy. Along the lines of healthy relationships, showing Emma the value of deep friendships with other women and also the benefits of having older women as mentors would be great places to start.

Obviously modeling self respect, confidence, healthy relationships etc. is important for all of our children, I just seem to be more afraid that I'll screw up raising a girl than boys. We definitely plan to "date" all of our kids one on one for multiple reasons. Each child needs to have a one on one relationship with their parents that's particular to him or her, and each child needs to have the continued opportunities to connect with each parent.

With Emma's arrival imminent all of these things run through my head and keep me up at night (along with contractions), and I know I'm getting ahead of myself. The newborn days (and possibly the NICU) are in our immediate future and I ought to be preparing for her Baptism, sleepless nights, establishing a nursing relationship and bonding, remembering how to baby wear a newborn and concerning myself with making sure my boys aren't left out when Emma comes. So pray for us, and for our family. For now we have to focus on as smooth a transition as possible when Emma is born, we have plenty of time to worry about everything else later.

The Importance of True Intimacy When Conventional Intimacy Isn't Possible

Our Wedding Day

When hubs and I went through pre-Cana we talked a lot about communication, conflict resolution, financial matters, sex, children, growing in our faith, and intimacy. We had sessions with our pastor, took an NFP class, and attended a diocesan conference for engaged couple. An ongoing theme from our pastor, the NFP teaching couple, and the two married couples who led the conference was the need for true intimacy in marriage. One of the couples who led the conference was on their 60th year of marriage, and during one of their sessions they talked about how to learn what true intimacy was. They also stressed that true intimacy is developed over time and, contrary to what the majority of people think they know about intimacy, intimacy is not solely physical or sexual. In fact, the definition of intimacy makes no mention of anything physical. According to Merriam-Webster intimacy is "the state of being intimate" or "something of a personal or private nature." Emotional and spiritual intimacy are just as important as physical and sexual intimacy, and without the first two the last two are difficult.

Hubby and I were, of course, going through pre-Cana with half our brains because we were so focused on our wedding day and all the planning involved. Everything we were meant to learn kind of got filed away to process later. When the reality hit that marriage really is as much work as everyone was trying to tell us we luckily had some knowledge to fall back on and

It was only after being put on pelvic rest that I even remembered all the focus on intimacy. Pelvic rest is pretty self explanatory. And while part of NFP involves abstinence during fertile periods, it's only for a few days at a time. Not weeks. Not months. Hubs and I had never talked about anything like this coming up, we never really acknowledged that a situation could arise wherein our physical marital intimacy would be impossible for an extended period of time.

We both have had to make some adjustments to the circumstances, and have started to understand the need for true intimacy. We've also realized that in order to foster true intimacy we need to make a few things a real priority:

1. communication
2. honesty/openness
3. friendship
4. prayer

Without communication, we'd be more roommates than spouses. We've fallen into that rut before, it's not fun. We both got wrapped up in how busy we were, that we ended up living parallel lives instead of an integrated life. Communication isn't easy when one of you is upset or hurt, it's not easy when you're tired, or if you've gotten out of the habit of communicating. But it's so very important to stay connected when you're married.

Communication is both verbal and nonverbal. Communication take practice. It's harder to reopen lines of communication than it is to keep them open even under difficult circumstances. Not to mention people with different personalities communicate in different ways and at different times. Sometimes I just want to talk about an issue in order express how I'm feeling about it, validate those feelings, and then I can think more clearly about how to address and solve the issue. But when hubby hears me wanting to talk about an issue all he focuses on is how he can fix the problem for me. It took a little bit of practice (and exasperation) to convey that all I needed him to do was listen and validate and then I would solve.

On the other side, hubs isn't much of a talker. He doesn't like to burden people, he likes to solve things in his own way on his own time, and when he's bothered by something his way of communicating is physical -- a hug and a kiss, snuggling up on the couch, physical intimacy. This isn't to say he keeps things from me, he just mentions them in passing. Physical intimacy is his way of being validated, and it took me some time to realize this. Too often I was too busy to stop and share a long hug and a smooch, because it wasn't my way to communicate, and it wasn't the way I experienced validation from my husband.

Along the lines of communication come honesty and openness. Being honest isn't just about not lying to your spouse. It's about not withholding information your spouse needs to know. It's also about making sure that decisions and issues get a fair shot at being discussed, and going into enough detail to get a point across instead of assuming your spouse will understand a novel full of information through one sentence. Here is where openness comes into play. If hubs asks me how I'm doing, I can't assume or expect him to realize that when I say, "I'm ok" I really mean, "I'm overwhelmed, tired, stressed out, had a rough day with the kids, I'm behind on housework, I need help and you better understand all of this when I say 'I'm ok' or you're going to be in the doghouse." If I want him to know all of this, I need to tell him. On the flip side, when he hears "I'm ok" he now knows to press the issue a little to make sure everything really is ok.

Friendship and prayer will have to wait for another day, I didn't realize how long winded I am! My apologies! And it took me two days on and off to write this much, so if I were to try and get the rest in now I'd never hit post. Until next time!

We Make Plans and God Laughs

We've all heard the saying, make plans and God laughs. Well I can tell you how true this is. It all started with my New Years Resolutions. As Hubby and I sat on the couch watching the time tick away and the crazy New Years celebrations, I made the following list of goals for the new year:





















If you can't read my chicken scratch, it's a lot of working towards getting organized, decluttering, becoming a more connected wife and mom, working on communication, finish the projects that I start, having a less haphazard and desperate prayer life, you get the idea. I was really struggling keeping a balance in all of my duties of a stay at home mom. The kids, the housework, the cooking, incorporating learning and playtime, continuing with my baking and sewing etc. I either had a spotlessly clean house and kids who sat in front of the TV for most of the day, or a disaster of a house with happy kids. Not to mention I got so wrapped with everything I had or wanted to do and my poor hubby sometimes was left by the wayside. By the time we were done with our days and the kids were in bed, we barely had energy for the dishes much less each other.

So I geared my resolutions and goals towards becoming more efficient and organized, with specific monthly goals to tackle. My first monthly goal was to wake up at the same time every morning. Sounds silly, but what better way to begin working out an efficient routine than to get up at the same time every morning, and go to bed at the same time every night. I didn't come up with this on my own, I took the suggestion from St. Josemaria Escriva and his book The Way which is a collection of meditation points regarding various topics. The five points below come from the section on Direction:

76. If you don't have a plan of life, you'll never have order.

77. You told me that to tie yourself to a plan of life, to a schedule, would be so monotonous!

And I answered, "It is monotonous because you lack Love."

78. If you don't get up at a set hour, you'll never fulfill your plan of life.

79. Virtue without order? Strange virtue!

80. With order, your time will be multiplied, and you will be able to give more glory to God by doing more work in his service.

Having always balked at routine and schedules and order I didn't know where to start, so where did I turn? Pinterest of course! With a little searching I found this free yearly planner, and this free Ultimate Life Planning System. I picked and chose from each and came up with a planner that I thought would work best for me. I spent a good chunk of time filling it out, coming up with a daily cleaning schedule, separate to do lists for getting my projects done, curriculum for starting to homeschool Liam, weekly plans, I organized my coupons and came up with a reasonable daily routine for me and the kids. AND I got myself up at my target wake up time the morning of January 1st. I was on a roll! 

The night of January 1st was a different story. Kevin took me to the hospital for some contractions that were slightly concerning, but I got to go home after a couple shots of terbutaline, some tests and orders to come back the next morning for an ultrasound to follow up. The next morning my contractions had come back but I didn't think they were too serious. Hubby had to work so my mom stayed with the boys and my brother drove me back to the hospital for my follow up ultrasound which we thought was going to be routine. It turned out I was contracting every two minutes and it seemed like Emma was going to make her appearance that day just short of 31 weeks. I was admitted and immediately hooked up to a magnesium drip, given steroids for Emma's lungs and given another shot of terbutaline. My 19 year old brother was an angel by my side and kept my husband and parents informed and coordinated the details of who was watching the kids, how to make sure the van and car seats got to the people who needed them and made sure my husband had a car to get to the hospital. It took hubby four hours to get to the hospital between the hour and a half commute home from work and then driving 20 miles through rush hour and a snow storm.

Thankfully labor was stopped, things are stable now and Emma passed her biophysical profiles with flying colors. I never imagined or wanted a pregnancy so full of interventions, but when needed modern medicine is an amazing thing. We stayed in the hospital from Thursday morning until Sunday morning. My and hubby's parents and siblings all surrounded us with love and support and took care of our boys, my parents cleaned our apartment (my dad even washed our dirty cloth diapers!), and everyone did laundry for us. We couldn't be more thankful for all of this as I was discharged with the orders of strict bed rest with the exception of using the bathroom and showering, and only leaving home for my weekly appointments with my new high risk OB (I had previously been with a group of midwives.). 

Talk about being blindsided! After all that organizing and planning I couldn't do any of it, much less clean my house or take care of my kids. I've been on bed rest at home for just shy of a week, and what an adjustment is has been. My husband has been working from home while watching over the kids and me with help from various family members, my mom and sister in law have cleaned my apartment and done laundry (bless my husband, every time he does laundry one of our sweaters turns into a hand me down for the kids), friends and family have brought us food and home cooked meals. I've been trying to entertain the kids from the couch, reading, writing and struggling with my new sedentary role. The fact of the matter is bed rest is the only thing keeping me pregnant right now so I have to let go of my other responsibilities and let people help (not easy). Luckily we are surrounded with supportive families and friends, and my grandfather and one of my aunts have made the journey from Buffalo to help care for me and the boys so that hubby can go back to work if needed or at least work from home with no distractions which is what we're hoping for.

So most of the plans I made have to be postponed. But I can work on my personal internal goals: communicate more effectively, let nothing take away your effectively, pray more and more effectively, less crying more laughter, be happy with what we have while working for what we want, admit fault and praise the success of others, more temperance less temper, learn new things, get up at the same time every morning, be a more connected mom, write more and revive the blog, read more, and let go of the mommy guilt. And maybe this is what I'm supposed to take away from this whole situation.

The Difference a Year Makes...

Well it's been a year since I last wrote, and lots of fun things have happened. Here's our year in short:

Tandem wearing -- Liam on the back in a woven wrap
 John on the front in a ring sling

 I got really into babywearing after my second was born. I kind of did it when Liam was born, but after John was born our survival depended on me figuring out how to hold and nurse a newborn 24/7, and take care of Liam, and cook, and clean, and run errands, and solve the problems of the universe etc. Enter babywearing. I even got Kevin into babywearing. Nothing sexier than a man wearing a baby ;)

Costco run on a Saturday morning -- John in a woven wrap and Liam in a mei tei.

I am no longer a work at home mom, I was able to stop working last spring to be able to focus on our boys which is a huge blessing for Kevin and I. I also have a little more time for my interests and will be able to start preschooling Liam in the near future. Hopefully I'll be able to dedicate time to the blog and not take another year off! I have decided to become a doula and a lactation consultant, and I've started all the required reading. It's going to take some ingenuity to get the classes and certification done while being a stay at home mom, but we will make it work!

My mom gave me a sewing machine for my birthday and all of a sudden I've been really into sewing and quilting, and I'm currently focusing on living a repurposeful life with my sewing. Cloth diapers, turning onesies into dresses, turning old t-shirts into usable objects, etc. Along with living repurposefully, we make as much as we can at home.

As for the kids, Liam turned two and as part of his birthday gift we converted our loft (my old office) into a playroom/school room. When I get my act together and organize a curriculum I'll be able to start Liam's schooling while keeping the other kids occupied up there.

Liam and the Elmo smashcake I made for him

John turned one  and we had a day at the pumpkin patch the day before his party. I can't believe my kids are getting so big! John started walking shortly after his birthday and is having a blast running around after his big brother. It warms my heart to see them play together... until they try to kill each other anyway.

John and the pumpkin smash cake I made for him

Our boys at the pumpkin patch

Pregnancy Announcement #1

Pregnancy Announcement #2

Perhaps our biggest news is that we are expecting our third baby! Emma Christyna is due March 8 but has tried making an early appearance so this mama is on strict bed rest. I'll probably end up writing more about this because the entire experience has been eye opening in ways I never expected. We are stable and healthy right now, so we are praying that Miss Emma stays put as long as possible.

Gender reveal invitation picture

Add caption

I will say that I probably won't ever do another gender reveal party. We had our families and friends over, lots of food made, and Miss Emma decided to be shy so we had no gender to reveal on the day of the party. We did find out three weeks later and announced it to everyone at a set time using a picture sequence ending with the one on the right.


Well that's our year in a nutshell. With all the time I have lying down and being unable to do pretty much anything (argh) hopefully I'll get some good writing done.

Advent!

Happy beginning of Advent! We're counting down to Christmas and as excited as we are, my family is also taking this time for prayer, reflection and resolutions among other things. No, New Years is not the only time for resolutions. Advent is a particularly good time as we are preparing for the birth of our Lord. And as redundant as it sounds, we did some preparation for the preparation. We have still to trim the hearth and set the table... and get a tree... but we did get the Advent wreath done! 

And by Advent wreath I mean a kid craft with my babies. Hey, I bake stuff. I haven't crafted since my wedding and before then I swear it was elementary school. So it's a little rough, but I'm still getting used to juggling the babies -- keeping my older from eating the glue or grabbing the scissors and trying to convince the younger (at all of 5 weeks old) to keep his hand still so I can trace it to make the "boughs" of the wreath. Not to mention I had to explain to hubs when he came home why his babies were covered in green marker, and convince him that they didn't have some weird skin disease. Don't worry the marker ink is non-toxic. So with the idea a cake board cut into a circle, some green construction paper, cardstock, tea candles, a little ribbon and a ton of Mod Podge we have an Advent wreath. ...it's the thought that counts. Please don't judge me by the picture of how the wreath is actually supposed to look. 

No matter what it looks like, the wreath still serves its purpose when it comes to evening family prayer. 

Next on our list besides getting a tree, is making ornaments so we don't have a ridiculous tree like we did last year. I basically took a bunch of our favourite pictures, punched holes in the tops, and strung ribbon through. We just didn't have the time or opportunity to get proper ornaments so I had to make do. This year we're doing something a little classier -- paper ornaments, pictures in frames hung from the tree, and other homemade ornaments. So... it will probably be as ridiculous as last year, but with more time and energy put into it. I'll be sure to post as I make progress, it should make for a few good chuckles. 

Grandpa's Birthday Dinner

My grandfather turned 88 on November 24th. You know what he said? "I feel so damn good it makes me feel bad!" He still takes roadtrips from Buffalo, NY to the DC area, or to Mobile, AL, or to central FL. He volunteers to help the elderly in his community, built houses for Habitat for Humanity for the 25+ years AFTER he retired from Union Carbide. He took care of my grandma at home with gentleness and compassion and gave everyone who witnessed his love for her a lesson in "til death to us part."

So for his birthday this year, I wanted to make him a fantastic meal with some of his favourites, and I wanted to do it all by myself and it was going to be perfect. I decided to bake him his favourite cake and then another one for him to try out. My grandmother always said I did everything to excess... I mean really. I'm delusional. Did I mention I'd be doing all of this in my mom's kitchen? Yeah... my mom and I love each other dearly but we can't cook in the same kitchen. Suffice it to say, my plans for grandpa to have a perfect birthday dinner didn't exactly fall into place... I did get all the food cooked and the cakes baked, but people did have to wait about an hour from the time dinner was supposed to be served. I didn't get to decorate the cake as I'd have liked either... and I was running around a bit like a crazy person. But! Grandpa enjoyed his dinner, loved his cake and that's all that matters. 

The menu:

- pork loin stuffed with apples, cranberries, corn bread, pecans all mixed together with a little maple syrup.

My dad had to filet the loins and my mom stuffed and tied them, it's something I'd never done before and didn't want to use this occasion to experiment. So I guess I can't really take credit for this particular dish except finding a recipe to base it off of and creating the stuffing mixture. 

- salmon baked in a foil packet with lemon and homemade herb butter (I didn't get a picture unfortunately... it was tasty though)

- broccoli and bacon quiche recipe found here. I used cheddar cheese not swiss though.

 - mushroom risotto made with Israeli cous cous. 

Skillet Biscuits

Risotto takes attention. I've only ever made it with Israeli cous cous for this very reason. It cooks more quickly and it's not as hard to screw up the texture. For this risotto I used white wine, porcini mushroom liquid, and chicken stock. My mom had reconstituted some dried porcinis for Thanksgiving stuffing and she saved the liquid for me. It's quite strong, so I only needed a little to add some depth of flavour here. Start by sauteeing the mushrooms in half olive oil half butter, set them aside and throw in the cous cous and a little more olive oil and stir to coat. Half a cup of white wine goes in next stirring constantly until it's absorbed, then half a cup of the porcini liquid. Stir again until the liquid is absorbed, then chicken stock half a cup at a time, and one more half cup of porcini liquid until the cous cous is cooked. Throw the mushrooms back in, season with salt and pepper and you're ready to eat.  

- Skillet biscuits

Some thing my dad, grandpa and I all have in common. I.Love.Biscuits. Skillet biscuits are one of the best things ever. 

1 c flour

1 T baking powder

1 T sugar

1 t salt

8 T unsalted butter

3/4 c buttermilk (or sour milk)

Sift together dry ingredients, add the cubed butter and work it into the flour mixture with your hands until it resembles corn meal. Make a well and add the buttermilk, mix by hand until a sticky dough forms and DO NOT OVERMIX. Overmixing results in the demise of fluffy biscuits. Roll out gently to 1/4 inch thick and cut into rounds. I don't have a biscuit cutter, so I use a wine glass. Gather your scraps together for a second batch of biscuits, but only do it once. After working the dough this much any further biscuits will be tough. Put the biscuits in a greased skillet (bacon grease works best) and bake 12-14 minutes @ 400. 

- German chocolate cake. 

I don't particularly like coconut, and we all know about my aversion to nuts in baked goods, so I had never tried a German chocolate cake before, so it makes sense that this was the first time I'd ever baked one. But I have a confession... this was pretty tasty. I think I've been misjudging German chocolate cake all these years. Recipe found here. For the record, my parents didn't have 9" rounds and all I had to work with was an 8X3" and a 10X3" so that's why the cake looks like that. I also only had time to dirty ice it and didn't get a chance to decorate. 

- Pumpkin Spice cake with bourbon glaze

2 c flour

2 t baking powder

2 t cinnamon

2 t pumpkin pie spice

1 t nutmeg

1 t salt

4 eggs

1 2/3 c sugar

1 c vegetable oil

1 can pumpkin pie filling

Sift dry ingredients together. Beat eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin together. Add dry ingredients to the wet and mix. Bake in a well greased bundt pan at 350 25-30 minutes. The bourbon glaze was a few tablespoons of Maker's Mark mixed with some powdered sugar until I got glaze consistency which I poured over the cake right after I turned it out. This works better for breakfast than for dessert, but it was still tasty. 

My Thanksgiving Dessert Contribution

So the desserts I made for Thanksgiving:

Mini Dutch Apple Pies

A muffin tin recipe made up on the spot:

- diced Granny Smith apples tossed in cinnamon, brown sugar, nutmeg, and butter
- home made pie crust
- oatmeal, brown sugar, cinnamon streusel streudel ...Dutch apple pie topping
Pop them in the oven at 350 until the apples are cooked and the topping is browned and bubbly

Mini Pumpkin Pies
Based off a recipe I found here except I used home made pie crust and mine were bigger because they were standard muffin size.

Now I don't like pumpkin pie... I don't like pie in general. But these were awesome.

Mini Pecan Pies

Pie filling:
- 5 T unsalted butter
- 1 c brown sugar
- 3/4 c light corn syrup
- 1/2 t salt
- 1 bag whole pecans
- 2 T bourbon
- 2 t vanilla
- 3 eggs lightly beaten
- cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves

Candy the pecans in the butter and spices, add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Again, home made pie crust and a muffin tin, bake at 350 until set. They're not as elegant as the normal sized pecan pies, but the trick to excellent pecan pies is still the same: caramelize the pecans.

Last dessert on my menu was chocolate pots de creme:

I loosely based my recipe off of Alex Guarnaschelli's, and don't take that to mean I think my recipe is better than hers. I just didn't have things like almond extract in my pantry at the time, and these are so rich my dad asked that this time around instead of making them in tea cups I use mini ramekins. The ingredients list I've used twice now is as follows:

1 c whole milk
1 c half and half
1 T strong coffee
1 t vanilla
1 c chocolate
6 eggs
1/2 c cocoa
1/3 c sugar
1 c coffee tied into a cheesecloth

When I was making the custard I threw the coffee filled cheesecloth into the pot along with the dairy etc. to make a stronger coffee presence as it sets off the chocolate so well. I only had to bake for 20 minutes because my portions were smaller and I chilled them overnight. Super rich, very thick, extremely chocolaty and oh so tasty. Mmmmm chocolate...

And my last offering for dessert was a beverage -- eggnog, amaretto, coffee ice cubes, sprinkle of nutmeg. I personally hate the way melting ice makes my drinks taste, and there's no better combination than eggnog and coffee, so bam -- coffee ice cubes. I've tried this both with amaretto and with Baileys, and by far the Baileys is better than the amaretto.

Thanksgiving Dessert Sneak Peak

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, but we're still all running around kind of crazy. Grandpa's birthday is tomorrow and I'm still prepping and cooking and baking and will be doing so all day tomorrow as well. I thought I'd post a dessert teaser from last night until I get the chance to really write about the whole day and the cooking etc.

I was in charge of appetizers and desserts again this year and from left to right I made mini Dutch apple pies, mini pumpkin pies, chocolate pots de creme and mini pecan pies. The drink was eggnog and amaretto with coffee ice cubes. Yummy! Mini desserts keep better than whole pies with pieces taken out of them. This also enables people to have one of everything as the portions are smaller controlled. When you slice pie there's a tendency to slice a big piece and this way everything is muffin sized.

When I get the chance to actually write about Thanksgiving, I'll share the appetizers I made too: sausage stuffed mushrooms, stuffed sweet potatoes, brie and pear tartlets with honey and homemade pie crust, and monkey bread.

For now I'm working on tomorrow's feast: German chocolate cake, stuffed glazed pork loin, baked salmon with herb butter, asparagus, broccoli, salad, and a small chocolate cake to celebrate my youngest son being with us for one month tomorrow. The cakes will be made, the pork loin stuffed, glazes and herb butter made, and general mis en place. I hope everyone had a wonder Thanksgiving filled with family, friends and fabulous food!

Daily Realizations: Giving Thanks for Family

Sometimes in the middle of a crazy hectic day, there is a moment that makes time stand still and makes you slow down and take a breath and really appreciate life and what's most important to you. Today in between fetching an aunt from the airport, getting babies fed and changed and napped, picking up a brother from college and reminding myself that nursing mothers cannot live on coffee alone, the moment I captured in the picture below stopped me in my tracks.

I took the moment to give thanks for all of the great grandparents, grandparents, great aunts and uncles, aunts and uncles, that my kids are so blessed to have. Someday I hope they realize just how truly lucky they are, and that hubs and I can teach them to appreciate the unconditional love that their large extended family has for them. In this moment I also realized just how much love and support that hubs and I have in our families. Life would be much harder without all of their help, and as grateful as we are we don't spend enough time thanking them. 

Nothing warms my heart like seeing my grandparents and parents love on my kids.

My boys and their grandfathers, the grandfathers and their namesakes. 

I hope my boys realize just how many good men they have to look up to and from whom to learn.

 My boys have two great grandfathers, one great grandmother, all four grandparents, three uncles and three aunts who are all involved in their lives. I understand now why they say it takes a village... luckily our village lets us parent without interfering and instead focuses supporting, loving, and praying for our nuclear family.

Sneak peak into tonight's baking adventure

I can embark on new kitchen adventures when my brothers come home from college and other family comes into town or when i've got willing guinea pigs other than my parents, the amount of times they've been part of my test kitchen directly correlates with their waist sizes... i tend to try several new recipes all at the same time.Lucky for me one of my brothers came home tonight, and my mom is providing munchies for this year's RCIA class every Monday night so i was able to really get into it this time around. Tonight i tried three new recipes as you can see, and during my late night nursing marathons i'll give details and recipes.

Where to start...

So... my first blog post. And I have too many directions in which I want to go, so I don't really know where to start. I was going to start with a recipe, but I don't have any good pictures to go with it so let's start with some background and go from there.

I'm a stay at home mom with a career during naptime. I met my husband on the school bus back in 2000. It happened to be the only year that the bus went to two different schools -- the all girls' school I attended, and the all boys' school where he went. After highschool we both lived in Florida for six years, I lived down the street from his family and we never crossed paths. We both moved back to Virginia within a week of each other and our moms put us back in touch.

My husband and I have two beautiful sons, our oldest is 16 months old and our youngest was born 3 weeks ago. We are a Catholic family, and look forward to expanding our family further. When I'm not working or wrangling children I love to cook and bake -- this is truly my most favourite labour of love. Hopefully I can share some of that with this blog. I keep a recipe journal and make notes in cookbooks, and theoretically I'll be able to record my kitchen undertakings if for nothing else for posterity's sake.

I used to be a fairly good writer but I seem to be out practice, so hopefully I'll be able to reignite my writing with this blog as well. I love taking pictures of everything and documenting all milestones (major or othewise) but I'm no professional, I just have a really good camera thanks to my brother. I'm sure my family's other interests will end up coming to light at some point while I'm on here.

Well... they say the hardest part of starting something is actually starting, and after writing and re-writing this post a few times I think that's true. I'll probably stick to recipes for a while until my writing comes back to me.

For now, suffice it to say that family means the world to me and some of the best ways I can show my love and dedication to my family are through food, the little things in life, and by giving them my time and attention. If that means that cleaning my oven takes a back seat to pushing my son on a swing set, or that I forgo my ironing for a few hours while I watch the Bills game with hubs and my boys, I'm ok with that.